Tiger and Cub
by ArchOfHope
Summary: Leonardo was left behind by his brothers to die. He survived but, he felt betrayed. Leaving New York City in his dying steps, he was found by another mutant who took him as his own. After a while, Leo found himself changing. For the better or for the worst? He himself can't answer that question. Father-Son story, mostly. Foot!Leo. Possible Leo/April.
1. Chapter 1 : Betrayal

Cold air swept through the skyline of New York City, the city that never sleeps. It was a very accurate statement as on the day, people who were considered "normal" would walk the streets. In the dark of the night, it was those who would be casted away if these "normal" people knows of their existence.

Four mutant turtles, the ones who fight for the city while staying in the shadows; in the background. They were still young, no older than 15 years old, and yet they carried the responsibility of those twice their age. Granted, this is what they have been trained to do. It's also what they wanted to do. They do not want any glory, money or fame, it's just what they are taught to do.

With the evil aliens, the Kraang, invading earth, no one is safe from the threat. The heroes have done a marvelous job of keeping the peace of the Big Apple without the citizens even knowing. They have battled with impossible odds of winning, with their very lives in the line and yet, they always won.

However, they cannot win all the time. No one would have predicted this. The kraang got them by surprise. There's nothing they could do now as they lost all hope. They won the battle, but lost the fight. The loss was not just a simple wound on their body, no, the loss was greater.

"So, you're saying that the kraang is going to attack New York in 6 hours with their full force _if_ we don't destroy the portal." Leo mused after hearing Donnie's explanation. Donnie nodded once, confirming that it was true.

"So what're we waitin' fo'? Let's take 'em out an' teach 'em a lesson." Raph bursted while shoving his right fist to his left palm.

"Alright." Leo agreed. "We have to protect the city." He said before his eyes narrowed dangerously. "… and in this case, the entire planet." He continued. He felt something ran down his spine. He suddenly conflicted if his brothers and himself should even go out of the lair tonight. _Why do I get a bad feeling about this all of a sudden?_ He thought.

Mikey noticed his brother who was frozen in his tracks. "Hey, Leo!" He called out. "You're coming or what, bro?" His question slapped some senses into him. Leo rushed towards his brothers, a bit uneasy. "So, what's up, bro?" He asked. Leo just shrugged. Finding his brother's answer was lacking, he asked again. "What's wrong, bro? You're not acting like yourself today."

Leo just shrugged again. "I just got some bad feeling about this mission." He confessed.

The three other turtles shared a glance and then looked at Leo all at the same time. "It's going to be okay, bro. I mean, we managed to tackle everything they throw to us." Mikey reassured him.

"Yea', ya gotta loosen up a bit, fearless. You're kinda being a stuck up." Raph suggested.

"Well, we attacked the TCRI building before and survived. I mean, what could go wrong?" Donnie reasoned with him.

He can't argue with that. Their last attempt while it was a close call, they still made it. Destroying a portal generator doesn't sound too hard to do especially with this team.

 **Mikey** , whose specialty was on acrobatics could fight practically **everywhere**. Although unpolished, his **raw talent** makes up for his undertrained skills. His nunchucks works wonders taking out an enemy barrage while keeping his defense up at the same time. Mikey might not be very smart and can be reckless but he still could trick his enemies to make it easier for him to beat them. His morale support to the group was also proven to be an invaluable asset.

 **Raph** 's specialty was his strength. His preferred tactics was **attack, attack and attack**. He was both strong and skilled and if it wasn't for his poor control of his temper and his sometimes cocky and underestimating his enemies before he fight them, he would be the best out of all four. He doesn't like to follow Leo's orders but he still did it. His sais is a defensive weapon so while he relies on them sometimes, he only needed his fist to fight.

 **Donnie** , being the smartest of them all was their **tech master**. He's responsible for most of their electronic devices and other things that needed a computer geek. He's also the team's medic as he's the only one with the intelligence and experience. While he's not the strategist, he still has good leadership skills. His bo staff have the longest range which act as its main advantage. While he stays mostly on the rear line to solve things his brothers can't, his fighting skills is not undertrained.

 **Leo** has the best leadership skills out of them all. He excelled in stealth and quick attack. He could operate even under pressure. His main weakness is that he underestimates himself too much and overestimates his enemies. His fighting could be described as **"the berserker"**. The more battered and hurt he get, the stronger and the more reckless he becomes and only keep getting stronger whenever more hope is lost. However, give himself enough guilt, which is something he couldn't handle very well and his morale will be completely crushed. His twin katanas is a weapon of "hit and done" combined with his stealth is very deadly.

 _Maybe they were right. I was thinking too much about this. Once we're done, we will go back to the lair and then celebrate yet another victory. Same as always._ Leo said mentally.

He was wrong.

After getting to the 2nd last floor, the place where according to Donnie was the portal generator to be located, they found nothing. The floor was clear. There is no more kraang tech inside. It's like the Kraang have abandoned this place. The lights were left dim. It looked like they left in a hurry, but why?

Just when Leo was about to ask Donnie for explanation, the floor shake, throwing him off balance. The ceiling suddenly exploded and then came caving in. Because of the initial shake, Leo was stumbling backwards, right into the falling ceiling. The inevitable had happened. His brothers dodged in time but Leo did not. He jumped to dodge them but one boulder hit him in the shell right when he almost got out. Then, he passed out with the lower half of his body war buried.

 **Leo's P.o.V**

My body from head to my toes hurts. What happened? Why am I in pain? Why can't I move? The explosion. I can feel my body being crushed by something. I can feel my shell cracking. I _force_ open my eyes to find out what happened. The dust cloud wasn't very thick. I guess I passed out then woke up again. I could feel some liquid in my mouth. It tasted like iron. It was blood.

My vision blurred, my hearing was no better. There must be quite some ruckus in here but I can't hear anything. I can easily tell I was dying at this time. We just walked to a trap the kraang had set. We easily walked inside of their trap. We have been deceived too easily. My body stiffened when I remembered something.

My brothers. Are they okay? Did they managed to get out of harm's way?

I saw some figure, obscured by all the dust clouds. Their outline, it was my brothers. My heart beat slower for the moment after knowing they are okay. It looks like they are arguing about something. Why did they have to argue now instead of saving me. I tried to open my mouth to speak but let alone speak, I can't even open it.

I can see Donnie took something out. I tried to move my hands and it worked. At least my hand still available. Donnie walked closer to me but I can't see his face with my blurred vision. I felt a needle pierced through my skin on my neck. What did he inject me with? I tried to use my hand to signal him. To ask him what did he use on me, but to no avail.

I started to panic. What did he used on me? Why can't I move anymore? Why is my condition getting worse? After he did, he went back and started arguing again. I can't hear anything but I could make some words out.

"… leave him …" It was Raph's voice. Leave him? What did he mean by that? Did he just suggested- "… leave Leo …" His voice cut me off from my thoughts. Leave me? Why did he want to leave me? How could he suggest leaving me here? They are still arguing. Of course, there's no way Mikey and Donnie would leave me like he want, right?

"… will get better …" Donnie's voice is next. Is he serious? He really think leaving me here will make things better? No way, I must've heard him wrong. "… remember the plan …" his voice could be heard again. The plan? They planned this? No, it can't be, there's no way they are planning this. This is just another kraang's trap.

A burst of memory came flowing through my head. Is this why they encouraged me to come? Is everything is a part of their plan to get rid of me? Am I really that useless of a brother? Why did they hate me so much? Did they hate me so badly that they made a plan to kill me?

Wait a minute. Mikey. There's no way he would agree to this will he? He was way too loving and sweet to turn on his own brother and stab me on the back would he? Raph I could understand. He hates me and didn't even bother to hide it. Donnie was a bit hard but he might have some hidden hatred towards me. But there's no explanation to Mikey. I cared for him and he said it himself that he looks up to me.

As if on cue, Mikey's voice can be heard. "… Leo will die …" Is the words I could make out. Did he just said he guaranteed my death? No, my ears must be playing tricks with me. Mikey was never the one to hold grudge and I can't think of anything that will make him to wish for my death. "… Master Splinter's orders…" Even master Splinter were on this? Everyone wants me dead? What did I do to deserve this? "… let's hurry …" I could hear a bit part of what he just said again and then the three ran away.

I can't believe it. They really left me to die here, alone. They really did want me to die. Maybe what Donnie injected me with earlier was some kind of poison so I can't get out from here by my own. Yeah, maybe that's why. They don't need me anymore so they get rid of me, disposed me with the worst way possible. By breaking my trust and my heart then left me to die slowly while getting crushed.

If that's what they want then so be it. This means that I failed as a leader, as a son, and, as a brother. I could feel the ground moved… down? I feel like I was falling. It can only mean one thing. The whole building was collapsing. Part of their plan too, I suppose. To make sure I die, they destroyed the building with me inside. There's no way I could survive this.

What am I thinking? Even if I did survived, what good is it for me? They don't want me as a brother and Splinter don't want me as a son. Nothing for me to live for. Nothing at all. Protecting my family is the only purpose of life I have and yet, I failed. I failed so miserably that no one wants me anymore. More than my feeling of heartbroken, I feel betrayed. Sensei had given me false hope of being the leader and then when I failed, he just get rid of me like I'm some kind of tool.

My eyes begun to form water. No, don't cry. They want me dead then so be it. Once I'm dead, I don't need to feel any burden of life. I won't have to protect those backstabbers. No, no, no, why am I thinking like that about them. They are my family. I grew up with them for 15 years. But then, how could they?

I could feel a hint of anger rose into my head. I coughed out some blood and then, everything went black.

 _Everything is dark. There is nothing but me. I'm all alone. I don't know what made me turned around but I was startled when I saw what was in front of . I was overjoyed when I saw my brother was standing in front of me, so much that I forgot about the events that happened earlier. But I find myself cannot move again. I struggled to rush to him to give a big hug, but I can't._

 _"You're a failure, Leo." He said with a sense of hostility. Then, he just disappeared._

 _I was left there, confused with what just happened. I turned around once more before I even know it. This time, it was Donnie who stood in front of me._

 _"You can't even do the simplest thing of leading us, Leo. I knew it the time you asked to be our leader that you would fail. Apparently, I was right." He said, then just like Raph, he disappeared._

 _My eyes were wide after I heard what Donnie just said. Did he really mean that? No, he didn't mean that. There's no way he mean it. It was all too much to take that all I could do was closing my eyes and held my head with both my hands._

 _"Leonardo." A voice called out, making me flinch. That voice belonged to …_

 _When I opened my eyes, it was master Splinter._

 _"You're a failure of a son, Leonardo." He said with a disappointed voice. Stop. Please, stop this nightmare. Someone, anyone, please, wake me up. "I should have not choose you to be the leader, Leonardo. You are a disgrace of our family." After he said it, I looked down and I shut my eyes tightly._

 _Please … stop this nightmare._

 _"Leo." My eyes shot open after hearing the voice calling me. I raised my head for no reason at all, knowing I would just get hurt again. It was no longer Splinter who was standing there, it was Mikey. "I should've never called you my brother."_

 _I forced myself to run to him. I tried to reach for him but he then turned into dust and was blown away by the wind. I fell to my knees, eyes still wide. No. No, no, no, no …_

"NO!" I shout out. It was just a dream, a very bad dream. Wait a minute, I'm alive? I looked around looking for answers. I was lying down on the sewers but how did I get here. After I looked around more, I found out that a part of the building caved in into the sewers. The voice of police sirens echoed through the quiet sewer system.

A good thing is my body doesn't hurt as much as before. I stood up only to realize my left leg was broken. I hissed at the pain on my leg. It was bleeding badly and a pool of blood already formed around it. I took off my bandana and then tied up the cut, being very careful. If I tied it too hard, I'll hurt my broken leg, if it was too loose, the bleeding won't stop.

After I'm done, I stood up again with my hand on the wall to support my only good leg. I was so focused on my left leg that I didn't realize my right arm was bleeding all this time. The cut was not as bad so I think it would stop bleeding all by itself. But just in case, I used my left hand to hold the wound from spitting more blood. The only thing to do is …

Is …

I don't know. What should-could I do? My family don't want me anymore, the citizens would freak out if they sees me and I don't think I want to see my fam- former family anytime soon. After some thinking, I decided. I'm going to leave New York.

After hours of searching for a method to leave New York, I finally found my way out. A truck, which I overheard will be leaving to a forest. I didn't stay long enough to know which forest but I want to leave this cursed city more than anything right now. Time to move on. They don't want me so why should I care for them? When the truck's engine revved, I jumped to the cargo side without anybody knowing of course. When the truck started moving, I fell asleep again. This time, it was dreamless.

My sleep was disturbed when the truck stopped. Using the gap on the truck, I scanned the place. We arrived at the forest already. It was already night time. How far did I go from New York? Not that it matters but the further the better. I jumped out of the truck while holding back some pain from my broken leg. After that, I ran into the forest. I want to make some distance between me and the road so I would be less likely to encounter a human.

It was strange, really. How did I survive that with a minimum injury and pain? No one could even hope to survive something like that. True to that, after walking for a while, my head got very dizzy and my vision blurred again. Pain came surging through my body, so much more than the pain from before I left New York. I knew it. I lost way too much blood in there but how on earth did my body got a delayed reaction to that?

The pain was unbearable. I want to scream but when I opened my mouth, not a sound escaped from it.

I fell down when I couldn't bare the pain on myself. For some reason, I remembered my former family. The memories of all the time we shared together, all those happy times we had. I couldn't hold it back anymore. Water formed around my eyes. Tears begun to fall down. I sobbed softly as it was all I could manage to do. I'm going to die here, all alone in this forest. I already lost a large amount of blood.

There's no chance of surviving this one.

Everything went black once more.


	2. Chapter 2 : Enter, Tiger Claw

**UPDATE ! :D It took a bit longer than I thought. I got distracted by a mobile MMORPG and well, I kinda got hooked to the game. Now worries though, I will still update as soon as I can. Next chapter of Tiger in Blue will be published tomorrow, just so you guys know. This chapter will focus on our favorite tiger mutant ! :D**

 **P.S Thank you guys so much for the reviews. This story actually got better feedback than Tiger in Blue. Thank you guys so much.**

 **Review replies :  
TheRealNightfury : Sadorable? LOL where did that came from? XD Thank you for reviewing the story. Your review actually made me laugh (in a good way).**

 **Sara Hamato : No worries, as I wrote in the previous A/N I will explain their actions and I'm sure it will be a good plot twist. Thanks for the review.**

 **tmntlover2013 : Thanks for the review, I'm glad you enjoyed it.**

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The morning sun peeks through the gaps of the thick forest. The forest looked untouched to an untrained eye. Perceptiveness, sadly, was essential to surviving the wild forest but for a different reason than the usual. One may noticed, not one bird could be heard chattering in the morning. No wild animals doing their morning routine.

BANG!

A sound of gunshot echoed through the quiet forest. A lifeless body of a soldier wearing a camo uniform fell to the ground. Blood escaping his body through the hole on his chest. Standing near him, is a figure, towering higher than 7 feet. A tiger mutant, wearing brown, almost black pants that reached his foot, a faded blue t-shirt and a hunting vest covering most of it. On his back, is a sword, shaped in a similar shape as a ninjaken sheathed in a leather cover. In his paw, he holds a black 9mm handgun. Smoke still coming out from its muzzle, a sign that it was just fired only a few seconds ago. He kicked the body to check if he's really dead. 'One can never be too careful in this forest.' He thought.

After he was sure, he put the gun back to the gun holder that he'd strap to his thigh. His other thigh also has a gun holder but he doesn't need two guns to kill someone like this. He searched the body for anything that could be scavenged. He found what he needed, two full 9mm magazines, the same type as his gun used. _Poor guy, it's probably his first day and he already met an opponent he couldn't beat_. The usual army soldiers, those who roamed the forest are supplied with a 9mm handgun and two magazines. His magazines, three of them, including the one that was already loaded are still full, an easy way to determine new recruits.

He took them and put them on his one strap backpack. Supplies are important and quite scarce. Thankfully, the two sides, ones that currently at war keep sending in soldiers. All he had to do is kill them and take anything that he could take as it could be proven to be vital sometime. Why would someone stay in a forest where conflict is an everyday thing? This particular tiger mutant was a mercenary and a good one at that too. He works for the side that pays the most and it's not that hard for him to have costumers as his reputation as a legendary mercenary spread like a wildfire in the world's underground.

One sentence that could sum up his intentions is "Money and fame." He's also bored out of his mind when his clan, the Foot clan, went into hiatus for a while. With nothing to do, what could be a better place for him to take it a bit slow while not letting his skills became dull than here?

Now that he was done, he walked away from the body, leaving it for whichever side it belongs to. He never really cared. With no contract binding him, he's on neutral side. He walked to the direction of where his small house is. He walked with a steady pace, not really in a hurry. He caught something on the corner of his vision. From afar, it looked like a large turtle shell. Curious, he stray from the original route to find out what exactly is it.

He was correct, it really was a large turtle shell but it was still occupied. A mutant turtle caught his attention. It was laying down on the ground, motionless. It's probably dead but he walked closer to make sure. He put two fingers on the turtle's neck to check for a pulse. His fingers stays at the same place for a few seconds. No pulse. _Poor kid, had to die when there are so many things for him to experience in this world_. He thought. It was definitely still young and from its body, it was a he. The world is unforgiving, especially for mutants.

Unconsciously, his finger didn't move from where it was. For once, he had hoped that someone would still be alive. He dismissed it as just his pity for the young mutant. He remembered that this also happened the first time he killed a man. That time he waited there for hours, hoping that the man he had killed was still in fact alive. He sighed at the memory. He was scared that time and the man's death was anything but intended. Now, he's having the same feeling even though this is the first time he saw this mutant turtle.

His mind was somewhere else until he felt something under the skin on his paw that was desperately trying to find a pulse. He's alive, but very weak. He needed blood transfusion immediately or he might die in less than one hour. But there's no other turtle mutant around, heck there's no any other animal around here. All of them were scared away by the growing war. No, he won't let this kid die. He felt that he'll never forgive himself if he let that happen. He lifted the mutant turtle gently and rushed straight to his cottage at top speed.

Arriving at his safehouse, he didn't bother to open the door using the handle, he just kicked it open and dashed inside. He laid the turtle to his bed. He took the transfusion equipment that he found in one of the army camp he attacked. When he took some supplies from there, he never knew why would he take something like this with him and never had it crossed his mind that it would be useful one day. Now, he's thankful. He gets himself ready to do the transfusion.

There are a lot of things in his mind right now. To point out a few : He doubted that this would work knowing their species were different ; he doesn't know what could be the side effect his blood might give to the child. He's not a scientist, he's a fighter. For now, he shoved away all those thoughts. The odds are small, but if there's a chance to save him, there's no reason why he shouldn't do it. So, he did it.

After the transfusion …

He took the two katanas away from the turtle and shifted his body to what it seemed comfortable for the turtle. He took a white cloth, run it down on water, squeeze the extra water from it and put it gently to the turtle's forehead. It worked, he can't believe it actually worked. He was both surprised and thankful. For once in his life, he saved a dying soul. After the transfusion, the turtle's pulse had gotten closer to normal, although not even close from it yet. At least he's stable now. Now he had to wait one day for his blood to be replaced so he could do a transfusion again.

Thanks to his abnormally fast regeneration that happened after his mutation, his blood regeneration rate also modified. His body no longer replaces blood every 16 weeks, it's now regenerate lost blood if the body felt it was lacking, as long as he's not currently starving. He drained about 25% of his blood, twice the usual amount that was allowed but he didn't care. The kid probably had less than the amount he had given in his system. If his calculation is right, he needed to do 2 more transfusions to go, maybe 3 until the turtle's pulse get back to normal rate. With that done, he now needs to get something to eat.

He walked outside. He made a mental note to fix the door he just broke. He felt tired after the transfusion but he needs to eat to recover. He walked on short steps to the river. With all the wild animals gone, the only thing he could eat now is fish. He didn't complain, he loves fish just as much as the next cat. He got two choice of eating it raw or cooked but now he goes with raw. If he cocked it, some of the nutrition he needed will disappear. He also ate a little bit more than usual.

All he could think of right now is the young mutant. Why is he doing all this? It's not just pity and he knows it. He shrugged it off and continued his feast. When he got back, he reviewed the damage the turtle had taken. A medium sized cut on his arm, a broken leg with a larger cut at the same leg and a crack on his shell, a large one. He wondered what could've caused this. Turtle shell was very sturdy and he never seen one cracked shell before.

He could ask him when he woke up, and with that in mind, he took some bandages and a splint. He cleaned the wound with warm water and applied some alcohol to prevent it from getting infected before he finally used some bandage. After treating the boy's wounds, he took a look on his work. He's not the best in treating damages but he'd say he had done a pretty good job. The bandages were tied neatly. It was easier to apply bandages to someone else than to yourself. The splint should prevent the bone from getting healed the wrong way.

The next morning …

The tiger woke up slowly. He did a cat stretch and yawned. He ended up sleeping in the sofa. The memory of what happened yesterday played inside of his head again. He really did that, didn't he? The fierce and merciless warrior helped someone. He still couldn't think of why he helped the turtle. He just felt like he was responsible for him.

Speaking of which, it's time for him to check up on the turtle and begin another transfusion. He walked to the door and opened it. He stopped in his tracks after witnessing the view. He knew there was going to be some kind of side effects caused by his blood and now he knows exactly what it is. The turtle had grown a tail. Wait, turtle have tails! It's what everyone might be saying but the turtle grown a TIGER tail. Not only that, he also has a pair of tiger ears. He's getting re-mutated. His blood must be replacing the turtle DNA from the boy.

He walked closer and checked for his pulse. It was stable but he won't last long without more blood. There's no other choice, knowing his blood worked even with side effects. He gets ready to give him his blood again. This time, he gave him about 20% of his own blood. He just hoped nothing bad would come out of this. After he's done, he went out to find some food and probably getting some weapons to give the cub when he woke up.

 _Heh, cub… I haven't used that word for a while._ Ever since his son was taken from him, he'd never use the word. He frowned after he was reminded of that day. More than 15 years ago, he was running away from government agents who wanted his son. He left his son on a safe place and then fought back their pursuers. When he came back, however, his son was gone. It was his greatest failure as a parent. After that, he wouldn't even dare to go see his wife again. He ended up in the Foot clan a few months later. After years fighting for the Foot, he was promoted to be the Second-in-Command. Then, 3 years ago the Foot clan went into hiatus.

 _If only I didn't leave him back then …_ He thought, blaming himself for the incident. Tears fell from his eyes and ran down his cheeks. He can't let this turtle die. He wouldn't be able to stand the guilt. He couldn't stand losing any more than he had already lost. "I promise, I will protect you!" He vowed. He took his gear and wore them again. "No matter what."

That night, after he got back he found that the turtle had become more of a tiger than a turtle. His skin was covered in fur, his snout is now longer. He almost transformed completely. The important thing is that his life is no longer in danger. His blood pressure was getting back to normal. Now that he'd made sure the cub was okay, he gets back to the living room and slept in the sofa there.

The next morning…

When he woke up, the first thing he did was dashing to his room to find out what are the changes now. He was more shocked than anything. The cub was now a complete tiger. His plastron was gone and replaced by skin and fur. He pressed the cub's stomach. It was soft. The plastron was gone completely. He shifted the new tiger's body to find out that his shell has been unattached from his body but it was still there. He took away the shell to get him more comfortable.

Now, he needs some clothes for the sleeping tiger. Why? Because Turtle naked and Tiger naked was a very different thing. Turtle mutants don't really need clothes and would be okay if they are naked. Tiger mutants on the other hand … tiger naked is the same as human naked. Yeah, you got the point. Good thing is he stored some military clothes that was given to him by his employers and even for him the turtle-tiger was still a cub, his body was just as big as a human adult. It was easy to know that the cub must've trained a lot. He's about 6 foot tall after the re-mutation.

Before he fit some clothes to the cub, he did another blood transfusion first, 20% again this time. After the cub was fully clothed, he takes a look on the shell. The crack was gone, like it was healed. Could his DNA's natural regeneration done something to it before it finally comes unattached? That's not important right now as the broken leg was already healed as well. Same this as the wounds. Maybe re-mutating heals the damages done to oneself. He only guessed, but that was probably the case.

To be honest, he doesn't even know re-mutating was possible without mutagen.

He sighed once. There are so many things unexplored about the mysterious liquid but he'd just let Stockman do the job to discover its true nature.

His phone suddenly rang. A text message. He took out his phone to see what was it and who texted him, might be a new employer. "Oh?" He said. The text said "Foot Clan is no longer in hiatus. We will be taking over the New York underground next. We will contact you directly in case we needed your help." He smiled. They are finally on business again. If they required help, then there will a good challenge for him to tackle. Now all he need is to wait until a good challenger arises. His blood pump in excitement, his paws turned into fists. This is what he had been waiting for.

"Unghm." He heard a groan came from the cub.

He smiled warmly. _But I want to take care of this cub even more_. When he looked at the cub's face, an image of his son flashed inside of his head. _I want to take care of my new cub_. He got closer and kissed the cub's forehead. He looked at his phone again and wrote a text back to the sender. "Tiger Claw, ready anytime. I will also bring a new member." He typed then pressed send.

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 **Yay, I finished it at last. And yes, I like giving out plot twists. How was Leo's transformation? Do you guys like it?**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please review ...**

 **Next Chapter : Leo finally woke up to find just how much change happened in such a short time. Will he accept the change? Stay tuned for more.**


	3. Chapter 3 : Adjustments

**UPDATE :D I got some freetime so I updated a little bit earlier than scheduled.  
**

 **Review replies :  
goodstoryfan : Thanks for the review. It's going to be a slow buildup so I can be sure I don't mess the story with plot holes so I think it's not going to happen anytime soon, sorry.**

 **Sairey13 : Yes and no. If you ask this will have some focus on Leorai then, no. This story will, however, contains Leorai in it even though it won't be the focus. (I'm a diehard Leorai fan, LOL)**

 **tmntlover2013 : Thank you. Also, the transformation will be explained in the near future as well.**

 **Sara Hamato : Thanks. Yup, you're following my story quite well. But one thing I have to say, some of my plot twists will be completely unexpected (both in terms of timing and just how twisted the plot twists are).**

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 _Leo floats around of what seems to be an endless space of darkness. He felt cold. There was nothing around him. He wondered if this is what death feels like, nothing but emptiness and void. His eyes were only half open and unfocused. He felt really weak. He started thinking again on how he got into this place. His now former family, those were the ones that caused all these. Dark thoughts flooded his mind in an instant. 'How dare they do this to me, after all I've done for them and this is the thanks I got?' He thought._

 _He immediately cast all of his thoughts. 'It's not worth it.' He's dead now. He couldn't do anything about it, even if he wanted to. If he had lived, however, he really wanted to go to them, beat them up and show them that he will not be easy to get rid of. He will show them that he will not be underestimated. He will show them what was hiding under his "perfect leader" mask. Show them just how reckless he can be if he wanted something done. Just how far he could go if someone angered him enough. They broke his trust, something that no one could ever hope he would take lightly._

 _But he can't …_

 _He's dead now. He had let them win. He didn't see through their plan. If he had just raised his suspicion when they were so eager to do that "mission" he might have seen it. 'But what was the point, if their plan had failed, they probably going to form another one.' The cold feeling is now getting even stronger. He felt like he went outside in a winter night without wearing anything._

 _"I will protect you." A voice echoed through the void space. He didn't know whose voice is it. He never even heard of that voice before in his life. What did he meant by those words. 'Whoever the voice belonged to had vowed he will protect me? Why?' His cold body suddenly felt warm. Just like the light from the summer sun showered his body. He felt protected. He felt like he wouldn't be worried even if the earth was in the process of being shattered into pieces. A feeling he never felt before in his entire life and it was the best feeling he had ever experienced._

 _'Am I even dead yet?' He asked himself. Everything is different. His sight became clear, his hearing sharpened, he no longer thought about the despair he had just a while ago. His body became lighter. No more pressure in both his body and soul. The feeling of dread was still there, but it's not any stronger than how he felt he was safe._

He opened his eyes slowly as he woke up. The bright sunlight briefly blinded his vision. His eye sight was brighter than he had remembered. He got up slowly and sat down. It was strange for him when he realized sitting down was much more comfortable. He scanned the room around him. He saw his twin katana on the corner of the room, along with his belt and the bloodied blue mask. He didn't remember coming here.

"Where am I?" He wondered aloud.

"You're in my house." A voice answered him, making his whole body tensed up. Not a very good thing to happen. Pain shot up around the area on his chest and stomach. He closed his eyes as he yelped in pain while instinctively hugging (protecting) the areas where it was painful. "You might want to take it easy for a while, the re-mutation healed most of your damage, but I don't think it healed everything." He said again.

Leo looked up and saw a humanoid tiger standing in front of him. If not because of the pain, Leo might have jumped backwards right now. He remembered something the tiger told him earlier. "W-what do you mean "re-mutation"?" He asked. He still hadn't checked his whole body yet so he was clueless at the time.

The tiger responded by sticking his thumb out and used it to point to the corner of the room. Leo followed the track of his thumb and what he saw made him speechless. Turtle shell, lying on the corner of the room. It's not just any shell, it was a very big one. Not only that, he recognized the pattern of the shell.

"W-wait, that was m-my shell, how did it-".He cut his sentence midway when he saw his own hand. It was now covered in fur and claws were peeking out of it. He also noticed that he was now dressed just like a human soldier. "W-w-what happened to me?"

"You were re-mutated from a turtle to a tiger."

"How did it happen?"

"When I found you in the woods, you were already dying so I brought you here. Your blood pressure was way below normal but there was no other turtle mutant around. I decided that I should at least try to help you so I gave you my blood. That's how you got re-mutated." He explained. "Most of your blood right now came from me and I think it modified your DNA." He continued.

He took another glance to his body. He was in awe of how much of his body had changed. He glanced again at the tiger in front of him. He was his savior. he helped him from a certain death even though they doesn't even know each other. "Leo."

The bigger tiger looked confused. "What?" He asked.

"My name is Leo." He answered with a thankful smile.

The tiger returned his smile with a warm smile of his own. "My name is Tiger Claw." He suddenly flinched after he remembered something. "Oh, right. You must be hungry right now."

Leo looked down to his stomach and it growled. Tiger Claw only chuckled and Leo rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Y-yeah, I guess I do." Tiger Claw tossed him something red. Leo carelessly caught it. It was some kind of meat, but raw. He looked at Tiger Claw who already started eating. He looked down again and sniffed it first. It actually doesn't smell like it was going to make him sick. On the contrary, the smell made his stomach growled even louder.

Unknown to him, Tiger Claw was watching him very closely. Every time he looked down, Tiger Claw switched his gaze to him and when he looked up, his glance went elsewhere.

"Uh, what is this?" Leo asked.

"Fresh deer meat, you should be thankful for it. Deer was very rare in this part of the forest. It was purely luck I was able to spot one." He informed him.

"How come it was rare?"

Tiger Claw stopped chewing and sighed. "Did you come here not knowing what was happening?" When he saw Leo shrugged, he continued. "There was a war happening in this forest, a war of who will control the resources in this forest. It was just between two companies, not countries so it's not documented by the news people." Leo looked confused, why would anyone declared a war for something like this? Tiger Claw knows what Leo was going to answer next answered the question before he asked.

"There was a mountain in this part of the forest. That mountain has a mine, a very rich gold mine. Not only that, it was rumored somewhere inside, there are an area filled with all kinds of gemstones ready to be mined. There is a folk legend that said this "Diamond Paradise" was guarded by the spirit of Izumi's God." He explained. "I found a few ancient documents around that place too. I sent them to a friend of mine, Stockman. After he decoded them, he said that the texts confirmed the "Diamond Paradise" exists."

Leo understood immediately right after the word "mine" came out of the tiger's mouth. Humans are greedy. They take anything that they could take. They will never be satisfied by what they have. No matter how much they have right now, they will always dig for more. That was their nature, their true self. Splinter's teaching is getting more and more questionable for him. Why should he protect them anyway? They never give him anything for protecting them all this time. Other than that, he was hooked by the legend. However, he's not looking for wealth. It was just his natural curiosity.

"Wait, now that you know it exists, why didn't you try to find that place?" Leo asked.

Tiger Claw huffed. "I already got too much money on my account, more than I could use. Unless mutants can be accepted just like a human, I don't think I could care less about money." He bit a part of his meal, chewed it for a few seconds and then swallowed it. "Besides, that place was guarded by the government. My reputation with them was already bad to begin with, but I don't want to make them worse." He continued.

He had a good point. Mutant was not the same as human. The humans got it easy. For the mutants it was simple, every day is a survival of the fittest. If you're weak, you'll be eliminated. If you're strong, you can have all the power you want. It was quite fair as some mutants were pretty much just a bunch of mindless savages. They are usually the stronger types but could easily be led into a trap. The other some were smart above human standards and sometimes, above human reach. This is the type that creep Leo out the most. There was also some rare case where the mutants will be the Jack-of-all-Stats. Not dumb and not weak.

From his observation, Leo could see that Tiger Claw was not in any of the three classes. He seems strong, but he's not a dumb muscle. While not the smartest, he seems to have a good know-how on medical procedures and things about mutagens. He was also prepared enough that he had known about the legend that surrounds the forest. Honestly, he didn't know.

"Hey cub"

Leo's head shot up after hearing the word cub. "I'm not a cub."

"Really now? How old are you?" He challenged.

"I'm 15 years and 2 months old."

Tiger Claw visibly flinched. He lost his cub 15 years and 2 months ago. If his cub was here they will be the same age. He just shook it off. "I'm 37 years old. You're not even half of my age so I'll call you cub if I want." He argued with a large grin on his face. Leo raised one finger, about to object. "What is it?" But then he just brought it down again. "Thought so." No one ever won an argument with the Tiger Claw, ever. He always made a point where it was hard for someone to counter. Even if they managed to do it, he will counter them with an even bigger point.

"Fine, you win, but only because you saved me." Leo tried to save some of his dignity from being crushed on a talk with one sentence.

"Though nut to crack, huh? You really reminded me of myself long time ago." He coughed once. "Anyway, how did you got in here anyway? I don't think I ever saw you around these parts." He inquired.

"I-I was …" He paused for a moment. "I'm …"

Tiger Claw knows how to read someone's emotion and it was safe to say the cub was having a very bad trauma. Of course he had, when he found him, he looked like he was attacked by a bunch of vampires. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. Just remember, I'm available in case you want to talk about it. Something like traumas are easier to deal with once you talked about it with someone else." He offered with a warm smile.

"Thanks."

"Anytime. But, if you don't want to talk about it, then how about where did you come from?"

"New York."

"New York, huh? I take it whatever happened to you is the reason you left New York?" He asked, starting to get the picture of the puzzle. Leo nodded once. "My clan just settled in that city. Ever heard of the Foot Clan?" He asked. Foot clan settled in days after he found him but the clan was well known worldwide so the cub might know something about it.

Leo almost jumped when he said Foot clan. "Y-you're from the Foot clan?" He said, his voice was shaking. Splinter told him that the Foot was an evil clan. He shook his head a few times.

 _'Why should I even trust him? Even if Tiger Claw was evil, he was kind enough to help me. That rat must be lying all this time. I knew it. His teaching was nothing but a bull. Protecting all humans? Living in the code of honor? Every single Foot clan was evil? Protecting humans who won't even accept him was downright strange. Living in the code of honor was nothing but a mask. He himself just broke it when he tried to kill me just because I failed. Also, this Foot clan member was anything but a complete 'evil incarnation'.'_ He thought furiously.

Before Tiger Claw could answer, Leo spoke. "Never mind that. I heard about the Foot clan, mostly bad things so I couldn't believe it at first."

Tiger Claw walked to him and sat down beside him. "Yeah, we do evil things and stuff like that but must of us are forced to do it. Some did it for their family. Most did it just to survive." He explained. It wasn't a lie. Some people are desperate just to survive. There was also some other mutant members that wasn't accepted anywhere but inside the Foot clan. Leo's stomach growled again for the third time, asking to be fed. Tiger Claw chuckled again. "Why haven't you eaten any yet? Believe me, it actually taste good." He reassured him.

Leo hastily bitten a part of his food. He chewed a few times, each time the time gap between chews became faster and faster. "It's … not bad." He said, still not believing that he was eating raw meat.

"Cooked was better, but you need all the nutrition you can get so you had to eat raw things for a while." He said, and then he took something out. It looked like cabbage.

"Why are you eating vegetables?" He asked, curious.

"Well, it's thanks to you. Like I said, I had to do transfusions to keep you alive. More than a half of all the blood flowing inside of your body was mine. I had to eat 4 times my usual amount to keep myself energized." He informed him.

Leo suddenly felt guilty. "Sorry, for all those troubles."

Tiger Claw continued eating. "No problem." He threw him a piece of the cabbage. "Just a warning, you should eat less vegetables from now on." He said, confusing the cub. "Just try it."

It shouldn't be that bad, right? Leo put the cabbage into his mouth then chewed. Right after the first chew, he spat it out. "BLEGH, it's disgusting." He yelped while rubbing his tongue with his paws. He never had any problem eating these but now it was so much worse than eating worms while knowing where it came from. He'll prefer meat anytime he's asked. His guilt just raised when he realized just how disgusting vegetables is to tigers.

"Don't worry, today happened to be the last day of my diet." He said.

 _'Are you some kind of psychic or something?'_ Leo wondered mentally. "If deer was rare around here then what do you eat?"

"Fishes." He answered simply.

Leo nodded and then continued eating. They both ate in silence afterwards. Leo didn't want to annoy him by asking too many questions. When they are done, Tiger Claw offered himself to help Leo with adjusting in his new body, along with some training in handling firearms and hand to hand combat that would fit a tiger.

Leo got up and tried to walk only for him to get tripped over nothing. He was taller now. Before, he was 5'4 and now he's 6'1. There was a large difference that made him feel awkward even just doing things as simple as walking. His body also got a larger but lighter built. Even he himself could hardly hear his own footsteps. That was a bonus that he was used to a heavier body so now his stealth is almost flawless, well, as soon as he managed to walk without any support.

Took him a full day full of falling and face planting and he's still couldn't get his walking right. Thanks to his tenacity, he didn't give up easily even after everything looked hopeless. Someone had gone through a lot just to save him so he can't quit. He got up from the ground and tried to walk again, this time with a little patience. He steps slowly but surely. If he felt anything that might make him fall, he stopped. If he keeps falling every few seconds he won't get this right so this is the only way to do it.

He stayed up all night just to adjust his walking, but he did it.

He panted heavily after he had completed his first task but then passed out from the lack of sleep. Without him knowing, Tiger Claw caught him just in time and brought him to his room so he could rest well. When he woke up, it will be hand to hand combat training next.

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 **Whew done. Next chapter I think would be an action chappie. How do you like the little talk between Tiger Claw and Leo?( Well, not so little as it took most of the chapter)  
**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please review...**

 **Next up: Leo's getting nightmares and Tiger Claw tries his best to comfort him. His training will take place and it was harder than he had imagined.**


	4. Chapter 4 : The Past

**A/N : Update ! Well, here's the thing, I think Leo's training will come next chapter along with more action and stuff. Also, to Tiger in Blue readers, I'm putting that story to a short hiatus. I was getting lost in the plot. I already have the ending but I need some time to figure out a way to make the Siege of TCRI a great closing Arc. Okay, now on with the story.  
**

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 _Once again, I woke up inside of the TCRI building. Boulders after boulders kept falling on me, stacking on my back. The heavy weight rendered my body useless. I desperately tried to move and get myself out with zero result or progress. All of a sudden, my body went limp. Let alone struggle, I can't even move anymore. It's just like last time after Donnie injected me with something. Clouds of dusts obscured my vision greatly. Out of those dusts, I could make out 4 outlines, 3 of them undoubtedly belonged to my brothers and one I could tell was Splinter's._

 _I tried to call for help and to my surprise, my voice still works. "H-help me, please." I desperately make out the words. They seemed to hear it as their shadows became bigger and bigger each second. For a good few seconds, I could feel an unexplainable joy inside of my heart. They are coming to help me. They are really coming to help me. However, all of them gone when they only stopped in front of me, not doing anything. What are they doing? For a while, they just stood there, making no move as if they were just some statutes._

 _Bit by bit, part by part, the fog started to clear up. That was the time that all his hope and joy turned into despair and dread. In front of him, his brothers and his sensei were only watching as he was getting crushed against the boulders. All of them wore the same evil grin on their faces. "W-w-why won't you guys help me?" I asked them, only making their grin grew wider._

 _Mikey stepped forward. "You want us to stop enjoying the view, bro?" His voice was cold and amused. It was very unlike uncharacteristic to the Mikey he knows, or knew. What did he meant by "enjoying the view"?_

 _"W-what a-are you t-talking about?" I asked in disbelief and confusion._

 _Raph huffed. "The view of ya gettin' crushed to your death slowly was too good to pass, "fearless"."_

 _I almost lost my breath after hearing it. Splinter crouched down to me and took one of my swords. He inspected the sword just like how I did it when I check for some damage on the blade. He wiped the sword with two of his fingers from the hilt to the tip of the blade. "Let us end this now, shall we?" He said. My heart froze, my breath stopped. I struggled for air to no avail._

 _"You don't need to fight it, Leo." Donnie joined the conversation. "The poison I made work wonders on mutants and there's no one else that knows the cure but me." He continued. Poison? When did he… That thing he injected me with. It was the poison he was talking about. "From what it looked like, the poison already took effect." He said with a grin._

 _Splinter raised the sword, ready to plant it on my head. "Good night, my pathetic excuse of a son."_

 **No. P.o.V**

Leo shot up from his bed as fast as a bullet. He panted heavily and almost hyperventilated. It was that dream again. It was always that dream every night. His breath was still uncontrolled, gone from very fast to very slow without any pattern. His paws were clenched on the blanket he had used for the night. Cold sweat ran down his face and body like a waterfall.

"Try to breath normally first, Leonardo." Tiger Claw said as he patted Leo's back. He was very worried about the cub's health. Of course he already fully recovered from whatever had traumatized him but only physically. His mental state was the one that worried him. He had been having nightmares for one week. It happened every day that even he already knew what time it will happen and already prepared to calm down the cub right when he woke up. Leo doesn't want to talk about it, or at least he's not ready to share it just yet.

After realizing that Tiger Claw was beside him, he cuddled up to him and started sobbing. It happened so many times now but he was still scared of that dream. It always happened yet it always gave him the same amount of despair and dread, the same amount of the feeling of betrayal. He also felt bad that he had to disturb Tiger Claw's sleep every night. He wanted to talk about it, actually, but every time he tried to, he couldn't do it. He couldn't bear the pain of retelling the story of how his former family betrayed him. Soon, but not now.

"Try going back to sleep. You'll need it for your training." He recommended. He might say that but Leo never actually go back to sleep after he left his room, and he knows about it. Leo will always get another nightmare if he goes back to sleep so usually he just stayed up for the rest of the night. Tiger Claw will train him in the day as if he didn't know Leo didn't actually sleep well. He wanted the cub to become strong. If one incident caused him this much trouble, then he wouldn't have a chance in the real world. He got up from his chair and went to exit the room.

Before he did, Leo tugged his shirt, stopping him. Tiger Claw turned around to see Leo was looking down to his feet. "Could you … sleep here for tonight?" He asked sheepishly. He kicked himself mentally after he asked the question. _'What are you doing to yourself? Wake up, Leo. You're not a kid anymore.'_ He scolded himself. _'He gave you everything you need to recover and now you're asking more from him?'_ He was disappointed with himself. Where had the strong leader aspect of him gone to? _'It died along with my old self, end of explanation.'_ He thought. He's no longer the "Fearless Leader" he once had become. He's now a different Leo. Once he gone through this, he only had one thing in his mind.

"Of course." He answered, much to Leo's surprise. Tiger Claw was happy that the cub was starting to open up on him, even if it was little by little. With that, they both turned in for the night. Leo's sleep was thankfully, dreamless.

The next morning …

Tiger Claw was the first one to wake up that morning, as usual. He woke up while hugging the cub in a protective manner. One of his arms was over Leo's upper arm and the other one was slipped under his head, making a pillow for Leo using his biceps. Slowly, he slipped his arm out from Leo, not wanting to disturb the cub's sleep. He woke up slowly, stretched for a little bit then exited the room. It was already time for their training but he didn't bother waking his cub. Leo hadn't had any peaceful sleep for quite a while so he just let him slip today. They'll start training when he woke up.

He got out from his small house and did his usual patrol. He didn't want anyone to be near his house, especially with Leo around. He just walked slowly with his ears as radar and his eyes ready to focus on anything that raised his suspicion. The trees were tall and seldom to have branches so traveling on ground was pretty much his only choice. His ears twitched occasionally when hearing insects jumping from leaves to leaves. The forest was very quiet when there were no fights happening. The night was much noisy than the morning. Without birds chirping in the morning, the only sound that accompanied the morning was the sounds of the leaves blown by the gentle wind.

His mind was sent back to Leonardo. If he didn't do anything soon, there's a chance Leo won't recover from his damage. He had to find a way to talk him out of it. The longer he's in this state, the more likely he'll stay that way. If Leo still wasn't ready to talk about it, it left him with two choices to get Leo to heal. Number one, is that something much worse than his own trauma must happen but it had to be something that he could easily get out from. Or two, he must do something that could kill a whole or more preferably, a part of his emotions that could get him forget the scar on his soul. Both options weren't sound very good.

 _'I guess all I could do is keep training him for now.'_ He was concerned but if there's anyone who could get him out of his PTSD it was Leo himself. Tiger Claw had went through a lot of things that could break one's sanity but he always got out from them, except of one. The memory of when he lost his son was still clear on his head. He could never forget what happened that night to the smallest details, even if he wanted to.

 ** _Flashback…_**

In a cold winter night, Tiger Claw, a tiger-mutant assassin are running and jumping across the rooftops. In his hand, is a little cub sleeping soundly, snuggling to his chest in a search of warmth.

"THERE HE IS! GET THEM!" a sound from afar could be heard easily in the quiet of the night.

For the time being, he's not the hunter. Right now, he and his cub are the hunted. _'Even Shredder isn't this evil._ ' He thought to himself.

He needed a safe place. At the very least he needed a place for his cub to hide in the meantime. While the Foot clan wasn't the best place to raise someone, it's still better than being raised on a government military base and being experimented on for his whole life. That is, _if_ he could make his way there. His jet-pack had taken some damage earlier so he couldn't just fly to safety. Suddenly, two man in black suits, whom he easily registered as government agents blocked his way with their weapon at ready. Using only his left arm to support the cub, his right hand reach for the gun on his belt and just in the matter of seconds, the two agents fell to the ground. As if on cue, a helicopter, and a large one at that, came from behind them making Tiger Claw turn around.

A man in black suit with a pair of black glasses covering his eyes is standing on the helicopter door. "Give up Tiger Claw. Why don't you just come with us peacefully and no one will get hurt." The man offered.

His blood now boils with anger. "No one will get hurt? What? Do you think I'm an idiot? The only reason you want me and my cub is to experiment on us and you're saying no one will get HURT?" Tiger Claw snapped at the man and then pulled a smoke bomb from his belt and threw it at the ground he's standing on. When the smoke was cleared, both of them are gone.

"Find them! They are not far away!" The man ordered.

Right now, Tiger Claw was hiding in the only place he could think of to buy some time. The sewers. He was thinking about finding someone who could take care of his son, but unfortunately his associates are all too far away, and so is the Foot HQ. Even if they are close, his friends are either assassins like him or someone from the black market. Both of them were one of the last choices for babysitting. He's running out of both choice and time. He was lost in thought that he hadn't noticed his cub was shivering until he sees it himself. Of course, the sewers are freezing especially on winter night.

He lays his backpack to the concrete. His backpack was damaged during the chase and one of the straps had been torn off, but other than that his backpack was still good enough. He took out a blue scarf out from is backpack. It was made by his wife a few days before their cub was born. She also knitted the name she wanted to give their son on that scarf. Tiger Claw wanted to see what kind of name she had chosen but there's no time. He used the blue scarf to wrap his cub. Tigers were supposed to be resistant against cold but his cub was barely 1 week old. Thankfully, the scarf was big enough to cover all of the cub's body. He could hear helicopters come and go on the topside.

He could stop them if he was alone. Even the reason he was on the run in the first place was because he was protecting his son. He got no other choice. He had to leave him until he finished fighting off their pursuers. He locked away all his emotions for that while when he left his cub, but not before finding him a place he deemed safe. He kissed the cub's forehead once and then he leaves.

Once he was outside, he drew both of his handguns. They were specially crafted to boost accuracy and penetration and not power to make it easier for him to fight. He waited for a while with his eyes closed and his awareness was kicked to the top gear. He waited for the perfect timing. Helicopter sound was heard from the distance. As soon as the helicopter was on sight, he shot the helicopter. It was only two shots and then he stopped. A few seconds later, there was a sound of crash originated from that helicopter. When he'd shot them, he aimed for both the pilot's and the co-pilot's head. It was the easiest was and cost the least ammo to take down a chopper. With the eye in the sky was gone, he could now use his stealth again.

One by one, the agents fall victim to his assassination skills. He managed to get all of his pursuers but one. Agent Bishop. He already retreated before the chopper was taken down. When he was sure everything was safe, he went back to the sewers to get his cub. However, he found nothing.

 ** _End of Flashback._**

His ears twitched when he heard something. Soldiers, around 15 of them are now surrounding him. _'Damn it.'_ He cursed under his breath. He went too deep inside of his memories that he hadn't noticed the presence of the soldiers. The soldiers doesn't look like they were coming to talk as all of them has their weapon at ready. Tiger Claw drew his ninjaken and with right paw and his handgun with left. This will be a bit of a trouble as in the morning he couldn't use his stealth. Not to mention that his opponents was fully armed with heavy machinery. He took a deep breath and charged.

 **Leo's room, the Lair, Present time …**

Inside of Leonardo's room at the lair, a blue cloth was hung in the same place as his other masks. It was still untouched even after he was gone. Gentle gust of wind flows to the cloth. It was a blue colored scarf and when the wind blown harder, it revealed a name was knitted with black string. Leonardo.

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 **Whew, done. The flashback was mostly taken from Tiger in Blue's prologue with a few tweaks on the grammar and some more detailing. How do you guys like the plot twist at the end?**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please review ...**


	5. Chapter 5 : First Blood

**A/N : A few reminder of this AU. In this story, Leo left the city before the Foot Clan arrived and before they met April. Also, in this fanfic, his brothers met April and Casey a few days after Leo's "death". Got it?**

 **This chappie... sorry, I guess I had to skip Leo's training and move on so I don't stretch the story too long. But there's a little action in here so...**

 **Review replies (sorry I forgot to reply last chapter's reviews):  
Aleutica Chikayra Hamato : Thank you for reading and reviewing. I'm glad you liked it.  
**

 **Sara Hamato : Thanks for the review again. You're awsome.**

 **Guest : Yup, you're correct. I didn't make it too obvious because of surprises is best served unexpectedly.**

 **NinjaInBlue : Thanks for the review. I liked it when people likes my story.**

 **tmntlover2013 : Thank you. Yeah, I tried my best to keep my plot twist fresh and unexpected.**

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The first shot has been fired, aimed right on Tiger Claw. However, if they think that it was enough to put him out of commission, they were wrong. When the shot was made, he already had his sword at ready and that was all he need. Everything felt like a slow motion for him when he entered his battle mode. He could even see the track that was made by the bullet. He used his sword not to block the bullet, but to re-route it. The friction of the bullet and the sword while he rewrote the route created small sparks. Once the bullet was completely re-routed, everything went back to normal speed. No one but him knows what happened.

The soldiers just stood there, not knowing what happened until one of them fell down to the ground. The bullet that was meant for Tiger Claw was now planted on one of their comrade's head instead. Before anyone could do anything, Tiger Claw had beaten them to it. He threw a flash bomb he had crafted himself that emits both blinding light and create a thick fog at the same time. It was made to anticipate in case the enemy managed to cover their eyes when the flash bang exploded. This time was a success, no one but him closed their eyes in time and with the smoke around them, he completely regained his stealth.

"OPEN FIRE!" One of the soldiers yelled. Tiger Claw speculated that it was the commander of this squad. He also speculated that the commander wasn't very bright. To open fire at times like this, when his soldiers were currently disoriented is one of the worst moves a leader could make.

 _'Stupid? Scared? Or is it desperation? '_ He wondered to himself. He just jumped to one of the trees around him and stuck the claws on his left paw and both of his feet while his right paw was still holding his sword. He jumped out of the area just before the soldiers starts shooting wildly and no doubt, without aim. As seconds pass, less and less bullets were fired. They kept going until it was completely silent again. The smoke clears out slowly, revealing only one survivor. The survivor seemed to be confused on his surroundings when he saw all of his comrades were down, dead. _'It's time to put him in his place.'_ Tiger Claw lunged at the soldier with his sword and then, the body fell, lifeless. But there weren't any blood pouring out of the body anywhere. "Assassination Art: Bloodless Vessel" is what he called it. He used it mostly when his mission is also to dispose the body without any trace.

Something was wrong, he could feel it. Everything was too … easy. If someone wants to kill him, the size of the army they sent was too small. Even the fight felt hollow. They were too easily dies. Were they seriously underestimating THE Tiger Claw? Or is there something else behind this? His paws clenched in anger. It was just too random that even he couldn't think of a reason as of why they would waste their soldiers. Everything seems planned but for what? Did they have too much man on disposal that they had to send some on a suicide mission? There were so many questions unanswered going on inside of his head.

He suddenly felt an eerie feeling of being watched from somewhere.

"GAAAAHHHH!" A scream echoed through the forest. It was definitely a man's scream. He turned his head to the source of the scream, his eyes widened in surprise. The sound came from a man on top of a hill, a soldier holding a sniper rifle. Then everything came to one piece. He realized that the soldiers he fought (or rather was fighting their own) earlier was just a decoy to create an opening for the sniper. He couldn't think if it was clever or dumb to sacrifice so many of them. He got back into on-guard mode. But there's something wrong. That sniper got a perfectly good opening for a shot but he just wasted it by screaming. Why?

After a while, the man just stood there. Slowly, his weapon was lowered. To Tiger Claw's surprise, after it was lowered enough, he could see a blade, a blood soaked blade sticking out from the man's chest. That's the reason why he screamed, someone stabbed him from the back while he was aiming. But, who killed him? As far as he concerned, he had no friend around the vicinity.

His lifeless body begins to slide down from the blade, falling to the front. At the same time, revealing the killer. When the body came crashing down from the top of the hill, however, Tiger Claw's eyes were stuck on the killer himself. _'No. NO! This can't be happening. How can I be so careless? How could I let this happen?'_ His eyes were wider than before as his whole body became frozen. _'Things just got from bad, to worse.'_ He thought. He knew at that time, he failed, again.

 **Earlier … Leo's P.o.V**

I woke up slowly. This is the first time in a week that I had awakened by having the sufficient amount of sleep and not because of a nightmare. Slowly, I sat up, recalling everything that happened and why I didn't visit the nightmare on my sleep this time. I instantly felt embarrassed when I remembered what happened. Tiger Claw is going to tease me for acting like a helpless cub last night. Why did I let that happen, I wonder. Now he got even more reason to call me a cub.

Come to think of it.

"Where is he?" I wondered aloud. For some reason, I panicked. What if he left me alone in here, just like how they did?

No, maybe he's just out to get some breakfast.

But what if he got fed up about me getting too annoying for him?

No, he told me himself that he would never leave me, that he would protect me.

I decided to go out and look for him. I got up and put on my belt and the strap for my twin katana. I sheathed my twin katana on my back. It still kinda feels weird. My weapons still felt small since my body gained a few inches. Even after all my training, it still felt like they weren't mine. But, I just use them anyway because there are no other weapons for me and I still need these katanas for something else that I had in mind. With everything on set, I left the house.

Just as I locked the door (which Tiger Claw had fixed a few days back), I heard a gunshot noise. Out of curiosity and some worries, I dashed to the direction of where the sound originated. After a few seconds, it almost sounds like a war was going on in there. As time passes, the intervals between shots were getting slower and slower. They are getting killed quite fast. Then it hit me.

Why am I being so casual when thinking of people dying? It might have something to do with me experiencing near death before so maybe I was more tolerant to the thought of death now. I just shrug it off for now. There's something else I need to check. I dashed even faster but still maintaining my quiet running. I need to kick my stealth up a level in case they were all hostile.

When I arrived at the scene, the fight was already over. Down the hill, Tiger Claw's there and is now standing in the middle of the dead bodies. He looked confused, like he was thinking very hard about something. I was about to go and greet him when I saw someone. There was a human wearing soldier outfit holding a large sniper rifle with his hands. I followed his aim right to Tiger Claw.

He's trying to kill him.

Outraged and blinded with anger, I lunged to the man with a katana on my right hand. I won't let Tiger Claw die, not on my watch.

 **No P.o.V**

Tiger Claw could only stare at the boy. Some of the blood was sprayed on his emotionless face. Both of them were just as shocked as each other. Leo didn't know what he was doing until the blade pierced through the man's chest and Tiger Claw knows it.

Leo's eyes followed the lifeless body as it fell down the hill. It stopped right in front of Tiger Claw. Leo just froze. He doesn't even know if he was breathing right now but his heart beats faster than ever before. Slowly, the large tiger walked up the hill to where the cub was frozen. He still couldn't believe what he just did, neither did Tiger Claw. Neither of the two could even think at this moment, too shocked to think. As Tiger Claw gets closer, Leo's heartbeat raced faster and faster.

Tiger Claw walked at an unsteady pace. When he reached the frozen cub, slowly, he took the katana from Leo's hand. Leo was still frozen in place. He then pulled the smaller tiger to his embrace. "I'm sorry." He whispered. _'It was my fault. I was being careless and I dropped my guard. While it was indirect, I was the one who forced him to do this.'_ He thought, putting himself at fault. It will happen if the cub was around him sooner or later, but this was too soon. Leo's mind was already in turmoil. Even the slightest touch could break him completely. Yet, now what he had just experienced was equivalent of being struck by a sledgehammer.

When Leo could finally think again, everything came crashing down for him. It was too much for him. Without warning, he passed out on Tiger Claw's arms.

"Leo! LEO!" He called out when the cub went limp on his arms. He gritted his teeth. He dropped the bloody katana and carried Leo back to his safe house, at full speed. On the way, there were a lot of thoughts crossed his mind. _'What had I done? How could I let this happen?'_ The guilt started to consume him. Leo killed someone and it was all because of his carelessness to put himself in danger. Leo saved his life, but at a great cost. The cost is that he might have lost himself in the aftermath. When they arrived, he opened the door and was surprised it wasn't locked. _'He must have gone there in a hurry.'_

Once inside, he put Leo on his bed. He took a wet towel and wiped off the blood, not letting any left on the cub's fur. While wiping Leo's face, he noticed something. Leo had caught a fever. He took a clean towel and soaked it with water. He used it to compress Leo's warm forehead. After he's done, he pulled up a chair and set it beside the bed for him to sit on. He sat down and waits, ignoring his empty stomach. Had he failed again? Had he failed to protect yet another one? Failed to protect someone that he cared about?

Right now, he was either about to roar in rage, or he was about to cry in guilt. It was the latter. He looked down to the floor as drops of tears fell down from his eyes. He couldn't live with the guilt he had if the cub didn't make it out of this. He closed his eyes and used his paw to cover the part around his eyes. "I'm sorry." He said, tears still running down on his face. He had not cried for more than a decade and the feeling was no longer familiar to him. He held Leo's paw with his own. "Please, stay strong, Leo. You will prevail. You must prevail."

After he waited for hours, he fell asleep. Even in his dreams, his guilt haunted him. He was reminded of how he lost his own son and now, he might even lose someone else as well, all because of his carelessness and him underestimating the situation.

He woke up after he felt Leo's body shifting. He saw his eyes opened slowly. Leo switched his gaze to meet Tiger Claw's. "Morning, sleepy head." He greeted Leo with a warm smile on his face. It was probably already noon at that time but he doesn't care. Leo returned the smile but after a few seconds, the smile disappeared. Tiger Claw sighed. "Leo, everything will be fine. You don't have to think about what happened earlier. The past wasn't important. What you need to think of is the present and the future." He tried to reassure him but he doubted it would work. It might help, but it wouldn't work.

"B-but I … h-he tried to kill you a-and I just let my anger …" Leo stammered then stopped midway.

"Hey, you did it to save me. I owe you one."

Leo shook his head slowly. "No, I'm in too much debt and what happened doesn't even cover the half of what I owe you." He said, smiling again.

"You're a good kid." He complimented. "Well, I know you won't be able to just forget what happened." He paused, trying to think for a way to make it sound less bad. "Think of it this way. Let this be your first life lesson that anger can become great tool, especially for us tigers, but … if you let it consume you, you will become nothing but your anger's tool." Leo chuckled softly after hearing this. "Hey, what's so funny?" He inquired.

"Nothing. It's just that I never thought of you were the "wise old man" type and not the "tough old man" type." He said then continued his laugh.

"Hey, I'm still 37, I'm not old."

"Yeah, well I'm a teenager and I'm not even half your age." He countered and the laughed again at Tiger Claw's speechless expression.

 _'Had he just used my own weapon against me?'_ He thought. "Why you little…" He said, acting like he was about to eat Leo alive. "Come here you …" He said then he put both of his paws on Leo's stomach. Leo was confused at first but then his question was answered. Tiger Claw started tickling the cub's stomach.

"HAHAHAHA S-STOP! GAH HAHAHAHAHA." Leo was laughing uncontrollably. He tried to get Tiger Claw's paws away from him but his strength was lacking by a large margin.

"Who were you calling an old man again?" He challenged, still tickling the poor cub. Oh, do he enjoy this. He was pinning Leo while he tried to squirm away.

"HAHAHAHA. O-OKAY OKAY, YOU'RE NOT AN OLD MAN. HAHAHAHA. I-I GIVE UP." He said in defeat.

"Good." He then pulled away. "I hope you learned you lesson." He said, raising an eyebrow.

Leo was panting from not getting enough air on the tickle fest. "Y-yeah, I learn my lesson." While panting, he was still chuckling a bit. "Never call you an old man."

Tiger Claw smiled at his victory. "You know it!" Their moment was broken by Tiger Claw's phone. It was ringing, not an incoming call but a message. He pulled out the phone and Leo looked at him curiously. It was a message from the Foot clan. It said: "We needed your help right away at the New York branch." He sighed heavily. "I need to go to New York." He said then he looked at Leo. "If you come with me you would be safer, but of course it's your choice to make, not mine. You have some bad experience in there and I don't want to force-"

"I'll come with you." He said, cutting off Tiger Claw. "I think it's about time I tell you what happened." He said sadly. When he saw Tiger Claw sat down beside him on his bed, he begins the story. "That night, the last night I spent on New York …"

 **The lair …**

"LEO!" Mikey's voice rang inside of the lair. He had awoken from a nightmare. "Leo…" He said softly. His eyes formed some tear drops. The first drop came out from his eye then he started crying.

Donnie and Raph entered the room when they heard Mikey was crying. "Mikey, please stop crying." Donnie said.

Raph pulled Mikey to a hug. "Mikey, I'm sure Leo wouldn't want you to keep crying like this."

"I know, Raph. It's just that … why did he had to die, why couldn't we save him? I should've just stay behind and died with him inside of that building."

Raph hugged him even harder. "Mikey, Leo wouldn't want that to happen. We tried our best to get him out of there Mikey. You have to stop crying like this. We were all worried about you. Even April who just barely known us was worried."

"I-I'll try."

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 **MWAHAHAHAHA. Plot twist again. Are you guys confused enough of what's happening right now? On another note, what do you guys think about Leo and Tiger Claw's bonding?  
**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please review ...**


	6. Chapter 6 : Stranger

**Completing this chapter took longer than I thought. Anyway, for this chapter, there will be some "spiritual" aspect. The character from Tiger in Blue will make an appearance. It won't be too obvious or too hard to notice.**

 **Thanks for the reviews :D**

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The bright lights, the pollution in the air, those are two of many characteristics of the city that never sleeps, the Big Apple, New York City. As the Second-in-Command of the Foot Clan, he has a lot of perks. Being fetched with a helicopter was one of them. Leo who never rode one before hesitated at first but after some encouragement, he agreed with flying to New York. Neither Leo nor Tiger Claw could believe that they are has finally returned to this city, the city where their life changing incident happened. Where Tiger Claw had lost his son more than 15 years ago and also where Leo was betrayed by his brothers. It was one week after Tiger Claw was informed that the Foot Clan was in need of his help. Those days of one week was spent to getting ready, training and dealing with some loose ends on Tiger Claw's mercenary business.

When Leo had told him about what really happened to him, Tiger Claw could not believe what he was hearing. His own family was plotting against him. They were plotting to kill him. The cub was stronger than he had imagined. Betrayal was always a horrible experience even if you could see it from miles away. Betrayal by those whom he had vowed to protect, his own family, was worse, far worse. It was a wonder that the cub managed to break through and did not break himself in the process. It was already impressive that he did not break before even trying.

Just remembering how Leo told him about how he felt when his family betrayed him, how he was crying while telling him the story always made his blood boils with anger. He had written it on his agenda that if he ever met Leo's family, he will give all of them a piece of his mind. It has a very big chance to happen since they were living in this city. He could hardly wait for that day to come. This is one of some rare occasions where he was looking forward to something.

 **One week ago …**

"That's why I decided to get out from New York, to get away from my past." By the time he reached the end of his story, he was already sobbing. He loved his family more than anything and remembering how his love was returned with them trying to kill him always brought pain in his already fragile heart. "I don't know what I did wrong or when everything goes against me. Heck, even now I still couldn't think of a reason why …" Leo paused. It was too painful for him to continue, but he forced the words out anyway. "Why would they hate me? Didn't they know everything I did, the meaning of my life was to protect them?" His paws were clenched into fists. Tears were running down his face much slower now.

Tiger Claw could only look at the cub with sad expression. He then smiled but still shown signs of hurt in his face even though he's not the one whom experienced it. "Do you know? I envy you." He said softly. Leo didn't understand what he said and gave him a curious look. "Don't take it the wrong way, cub. I envy for the fact of how strong you were." He said.

Leo was still confused by what he was trying to say just stays quiet.

Tiger Claw on the other hand could read the cub like a book. "At first I thought that your trauma was caused by nothing but your injury. That was the real reason as of why I call you "cub"." He confessed. "I called you "cub" as an encouragement for you to grow out of your trauma. I was wrong. You were strong, Leo. If something like that ever happened to me, if I was ever betrayed by my own family who I grow up with, let alone escape it, I don't think I could even talk about it with anyone at all." He continued with a smile. He then pulled Leo into a hug in which Leo returned almost immediately. "To put it simply, I'm proud of you."

The last part of what Tiger Claw had said made him very happy in spite of the fact that he felt unworthy of his praise. However, he was thankful anyway. "Thanks, but you're wrong." He said then quickly, it followed with an explanation. "I don't think I'm over it yet, not by a long shot. It's going to take a long time, if ever at all for me to get back to normal." He explained. "I think all I need to wait for is the day when all this finally caught up to me."

"Hey, but you still managed to talk about it with someone else. That was a good first step." He said, still hugging him.

"Well, it was all thanks to you. If you hadn't helped me, I don't think I'm still alive right now. My life wasn't the only thing you had saved." Not only had Tiger Claw saved his life, he also saved his sanity. He had always thought about it that even if he managed to survive, he would probably die from suicide. There's no honor in choosing the shortcut, not that honor was important to him now. "If not because of you I probably already had stabbed my katana into myself already."

Tiger Claw broke the hug, albeit a little abruptly, much to Leo's confusion. He looked at Leo in the eyes. "Never! Don't ever think like that, Leo. You're strong. Stop punishing yourself for something you couldn't have stopped. "You did everything you could have done. If you can't save everything, save anything you could." Remember that." His eyes were serious as if he was about to go into battle.

Leo only stared but then brought his head down again. "You're giving me too much credit and you're not giving yourself enough." Then, everything went silent for a couple of minutes.

"Maybe." He said, breaking the silence. "But I know the fact that you're the strongest person I've ever met. You're still 15, you don't have much experience with how cruel this world could be. You're stronger than the people twice your age. Your own will to live, it was the one that helped me to save you. It's not me who's not getting enough credits, it's you. You need to give yourself a break. Just think about it, okay?" Leo responds to him with a nod. "Good. You should get ready. While we're not going to depart in one week, give it or take but you should get ready."

Once again, he answered with a nod. Tiger Claw stood up and went for the door. Leo noticed something was missing while he was packing and it was too obvious what it is. "Uh, Tiger Claw?" He called out before Tiger Claw reached the door. He turned on his heels to see Leo with his two katana sheathes. One was empty. "Where's my other katana."

Tiger Claw went silent for a while as he remembered what happened back at the hills. "Uh oh." He completely forgot about it. He explained it to Leo shortly after.

"YOU WHAT?" Leo's yell can be heard echoing in the silent forest. Leo checked his other sword carefully then sighed. "The one that you threw was my _first_ katana that I have ever forged in my life."

"Don't worry, I'll go get it for y- wait, did you said you know how to forge your weapon?" He asked curiously.

"Well, yeah. My first katana was a gift. When it broke, I tried to learn how to make one by my own. That katana was the product of my very first attempt. It never breaks unlike my other weapons since I used meteorite alloy to make-"

"Hold up." Tiger Claw cut him off. "How did you get meteorite? Those things are hard to find even on the black market." Meteorite was one of the strongest metals that existed on earth. It was rare since the chances of a meteor would make it through the earth's atmosphere was very unlikely. However, if forged correctly, it could be stronger than diamonds. On the flip side, it was very rare and very pricey. A lot of money doesn't guarantee for someone to have some. There are only a few weapons that he knows created with meteorite. Shredder's gauntlets were made using those.

"Oh, I think those were the Kraang's failed experiment. When I was looking for a good material for my katana, I found some kind of weird looking gun. Secretly, I went to one of their labs and found some files saying that the gun was made out of meteorite." When he said secretly, he really meant it. Splinter never allowed them to go out to the surface before the day they were 15. He might be the "perfect" student in front of splinter but not if none of his family was around. "It took half a day just to melt it and a few days to forge it. But it's worth it, having a weapon that (almost) can't break."

"Alright then. You wait here and I'll go get it." Leo shouldn't come with him in this one for obvious reasons.

"Wait, I'll go too." Leo said, stopping Tiger Claw on his tracks.

"Seriously? I mean, you don't really have to since, you know…"

"I know but, I have to."

They went to the hills as fast as they could. The faster it's done the better. Strangely, there's no smell of blood. It was as if there was no battle took place in that area. It only gave them a sense of danger if anything at all. Now, all they want to do is take Leo's katana then leave. When they climbed the hill, right where Tiger Claw had dropped it, there was a man in there. Eerie feeling struck both Leo and Tiger Claw.

The man was about 5'8 – 5'10. His whole body was covered by black cloak. He was holding something but it was too dark to immediately tell what it was. Leo and Tiger Claw had their weapons at ready. As if on cue, the man turned around. His face was covered in shadows. His eyes were glowing red, giving an impression that this man is dangerous. They would want to avoid a fight but their objective was held by him. On his hand, he has Leo's katana. He should at least try to ask him nicely for it.

"Um, sir. The katana you were holding…" Leo initiated the dialogue.

"It is yours, I presume?" The man replied. His voice was deep and almost … ghostly that it sent chill down to Leo's spine.

"And I assume that you were the god of Izumi tribe?" Tiger Claw intercepted, earning Leo's attention.

The man let out an amused humming. "You're not a member of the Izumi tribe. May I ask how did you know about our most kept secret?"

"I found some artifacts around the forest when I got here. There were some interesting things written on those, even the fact that while the Izumi tribe believed your resting place, the so called "Diamond Paradise" was not located in the mountains." Tiger Claw smirked. "but the entrance was here, in this hill."

The two seems to share a challenging glare to each other. Leo finally decided to break it. "Uh, can I please have my weapon back?"

The man switched his gaze to Leo. "This sword is quite a work of art, not to mention the materials used were unlike nothing I have seen before. I want to know who forged this sword. Then I will return it to you."

"It was me." Leo replied quickly. "That sword was mine and I'm the one who made that sword." He said. For some reason, Leo's guard was automatically on high gear. It was like he was expecting something. Not necessarily something bad.

"I sense that you were telling the truth. I must say, you were quite young for a great sword smith." He said, complimenting him. He then extended his hand so Leo could reach the handle of the weapon.

Hastily, Leo reached for his katana. When he finally reached of the hilt, the feeling he had was confirmed. That very moment, the man exploded into a blinding light. None of them covered their eyes in time and was blinded by the light.

Tiger Claw grunted in annoyance. "So this is how it feels to have a flash bang exploded right in front of you." He said. After a while, his vision returned, and so is Leo's.

"He's a god and all but he knows how to make a grand exit." Leo said right after he noticed the man they were talking with a few seconds ago was gone without a trace.

 **Present time, Foot Clan HQ…**

Leo who never actually seen the Foot Clan HQ was quite impressed. Just like from the outside, the inside is also a mix of modern design and Japanese design, which surprisingly fits. From the outside, it was quite obvious the building was owned by a Japanese man. The inside was even more obvious. The doors were designed just like the Japanese sliding door but it here, some of them slides automatically. Leo was not a tech person so his curiosity is justified. He was scanning his surroundings to the smallest of the details.

He kept walking behind Tiger Claw but he doesn't really paying attention to him. Until he stopped. "Ooof." Leo ran into Tiger Claw who stopped in front of an oversized door.

Tiger Claw, without turning spoke to him. "Leo, whatever you do, try not to make Shredder too angry." He said, almost jokingly but still with some seriousness. "But be brave, he actually liked people who were brave enough to stand up to him but doesn't try anything funny with him." Leo nodded once before Tiger Claw opened the door. Inside, it looked like a throne room, with less decoration. A man was sitting on the throne which Leo automatically assumes as the Shredder. He had heard of him from Splinter's stories of how this man was evil and never showed mercy.

"Tiger Claw. I am quite glad that you managed to arrive here in such a short notice. And I see you have a companion." Shredder spoke with a low tone.

"Yes, master Shredder. This is-"

"My name is Leo, I'm a mercenary." He said, cutting off Tiger Claw who looked at him with a confused look. Leo still couldn't trust this man. He gives off the bad guy vibes and it was much more obvious than anyone he had met. "I know that you have a vendetta with the Hamato Clan. Just like you, I also want to hunt them down. One thing I want to say is that when I'm doing my mission, I go with my own methods."

"Oh? And what are your "methods" of hunting the Hamato Clan exactly?" Shredder challenged.

Leo grinned. "It's simple. All I have to do is keep attacking them until they break all by themselves." He said, then, he turned away and went for the door. When he got outside, he let out a relieved sigh. That man was beyond scary. Leo speculated that an average man would run a mile just by looking at him. He needed some fresh air. He went to the quarter that had been prepared for him. He had already put all of his things in there, including some clothes Tiger Claw had bought for him so he doesn't have to go around with the military outfit, his twin katana and his shell which he had modified.

The shell was modified into a shield that could be held vertically. He covered it in black bandages to hide the fact that it was a turtle shell. One of his twin katana, the one that were made using meteorite has his bandana tied to its hilt. He needed all these for something he had in head even before Tiger Claw found him. He wore all his gear, including the modified handgun Tiger Claw gave him, and went outside.

Inside of Shredder's throne room, Shredder was laughing in amusement on how Leo had acted, telling Tiger Claw that it reminded him of his daughter's attitude.

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 **Whew, done. Moar Tiger Claw and Leo's Father-Son moments. I took some things from 2k3 just cuz it was my favorite. Things that I took were Leo being a sword smith and the design of Foot Clan building. Izumi finally made his appearance. His evil twin will appear as well but not anytime soon. Yeah, Shred-head was actually impressed by Leo's brave attitude which is very similar to Karai's. He doesn't show it to anyone but Tiger Claw, though. Oh, Shred-head, you're such a** ** _tsundere_** **(don't tell him I said that) LOL. BTW, I also took the point of Tiger Claw being on equal terms in the fighting aspect with the Shredder that came from Tiger in Blue.**

 **Yeah… Shred-head was much more respectable in this fic cuz he's not the main villain.**

 **Anyway…**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please review …**

 **I think next chapter would be the big encounter of Leo and his bros.**


	7. Chapter 7 : Master and Student

**Update … Yeah, last chapter was uneventful cuz it's mostly just stuff about what carried over from 2k3 to this fanfic along with the material used on Leo's katana. But this one, the one you guys have been waiting for. The time Leo met up with his family. Enjoy.**

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Patience … it is one of Leo's best traits that came with being trained to be in command. His patience was used to wait for the best moment to strike, to not easily be provoked by the enemy, even to deal with annoying little brothers. Right now, patience is the only thing keeping him from invading his old lair, in spite of the fact that his patience was running thinner as every second pass. Being in a tiger body changed a lot of things. His now less tolerable patience was one of them. Things that usually would not provoke him now felt like he was being attacked physically. Small insults or even jokes no longer goes passes his head. There are times where he would draw his swords just from hearing things he did not want to hear, even if it is not being addressed to him.

At the present time, he's waiting on the top of an apartment building. He needed to be ready at all times in the event that he might have miscalculated his timing of coming here. After spending some time calculating his brothers new patrol route based from their sightings was the easy part. The hard part, which had already passed, was gathering the information. He had to practically interrogate every single Foot ninja that was on duty, break into several Police Force's offices, along with questioning some thug informants which took more than 2 weeks.

That was successful due to the fact that the Shredder had not given him any mission yet and the Foot ninjas' apparent cooperation. Now, his only task is waiting.

He took a glance at his phone once in a while, anxiously waiting for the right time to reveal himself to his brothers. _'One minute left.'_ He mused in his thoughts. He counted from 1 to 45 and then gets 3 shuriken at ready in which he slipped in between his fingers now that he got four fingers instead of three. At the count of 50, his ears twitched once. _'They are on time, surprisingly enough.'_ Then, he counted down from 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 …

In an instant, the shuriken made a line from his paw to the rooftop of the building he's watching. It landed right in front his brothers whose stopped abruptly. He threw another but he made sure that this one was obvious enough for his brothers to evade. They jumped back to avoid it, just like what he had calculated.

"Whoa, who threw that?" Mikey spoke quietly but it was still enough for Leo's enhanced hearing to catch. Their weapons are now at the ready but they didn't know what was coming for them.

Everything went according to his plan. They landed right where Leo had calculated. Then, he flung his last shuriken. The last shuriken was not aimed at his brothers, but it was aimed at the rope he had prepared.

They didn't see it coming. The steel beam that was hung by a rope swung right where the three turtles were standing at, a direct hit. "AH." The three turtles screamed in pain at the blow. Donnie and Raph were thrown to the floor while Mikey who's lighter than the other two was slammed, but not hard, against the brick wall. Of course, Leo was not relying on that trap alone. His brothers had taken much harder blows before so this would not wound them too badly.

Leo leapt from his hiding place to his brothers in one jump, landed only a few meters from them.

 **The lair …**

The smell of blood managed to shook Splinter off from his meditation. In a hurry, he opened the door and made a way straight to the Lair's main room. His eyes widened at the scene. Michelangelo was holding his bloodied upper arm and hissed a few times from the pain. Donatello is helping his brother dressing the wound. Raphael looked rather uneasy.

"My sons, what happened?" He asked. Mikey and Donnie both looked at Raph who sighed.

"We got ambushed, master."

 **Earlier …**

They still didn't know what hit them earlier but it was enough to get them dizzy. They had thought that it just some Foot ninjas got lucky that their trap for once worked. They were wrong. It was a trap alright, but it was made by another mutant, a tiger. Raph was the first one to get back into his senses. Grunting loudly in both pain and irritation, he forced himself to get up. He's about to help his brothers whose still had not stood up yet but he was caught by the sight of his opponent.

He's a tiger mutant, stood taller than 6 feet. He has striking blue eyes that felt strangely familiar to him. He wore dark blue T-shirt, black cargo pants that covered down to his knees. His legs are covered by black bandages from his knee to his feet and his paw was covered by white bandage just like how a boxer wore them. He walks bare footed. He also have a leather weapon strap that he wears crossed from his right shoulder to his left hip but strangely, he doesn't have any weapon. His grin was ticking Raph off. He quickly assumed that this is one of the Shredder's underlings. "What're ya smilin' at?" Raph asked.

The tiger made an amused huff sound. "Oh, nothing important." He said, rolling his eyes. "It's just, trapping you guys were just too easy, makes me wonder if the Shredder was getting lax lately." He said with his eyes making an impression that he was bored.

Raph glared at him but then he gave him a smug smile of his own. "Oh yeah? Look pal, we flipped everythin' Shredder threw at us so why don't ya just go back to yer boss and we'll let ya off easy." He said, his voice is filled with confidence.

It only made him laugh. "Did you really think that I worked for the Shred-head?" His laugh only got louder and almost uncontrolled, but one thing is that it sounds evil for Raph. "True that if he pays me I might be willing to work for him, but I'm hunting down the Hamato clan is not something I'll do for that old man." He told him. He then took a lotus position right where he was standing at and then closed his eyes as if he was meditating. "Go wake your brothers up." He said, making Raph confused. "The fight wouldn't be fun without them."

At this, Raph's already breaking temper was hit even more. The smug smile he had on his face turned into an angry frown. His hands reached for his sais that fell on the floor from the blow earlier. He twirled his sais on his hands then held them firmly, ready to attack.

"As they said, the more the merrier."

After the last sentence that came out from the tiger's mouth, he growled then released a battle cry as he charges to the tiger. One thing he didn't know that his opponent knows every single flaw and opening on his attack. Suddenly, the tiger's eyes shot open, revealing a golden glow on his blue eyes. Right now, for Raph everything gone with a normal speed. For the tiger, however, everything is in slow motion thanks to his cat reflex.

As Raph attacked, the tiger went for his most noticeable opening. When attacking with both of his sais, he tends to let his guard on his lower left stomach open. He went for that one and threw a punch that was enough to make him stumbling back. The tiger who is already out of his lotus position didn't give him any time to recover. He did another light punch as if he was playing with him, but, Raph was already off balance and those playful punches was enough to get his balance even worse than usual.

In his mind, he's asking _'How did he could have known about his weakness? How could he know that his main weakness is his balance?'_ Not only that, the attacks felt very familiar, like it was used against him once before.

After the third punch was launched, Raph had ran out of back steps and now was pinned against the wall. The tiger swept his feet against Raph's but with his balance not completely recovered, he fell down to his sides easily.

Raph felt like he was struck by a lightning. That trick was the same one. It was the same trick that Leo had used and not just once, but a lot of times to remind him to work on his balance. The locations of the three punches, the timing, even the time he had a wall behind him was perfect. He could easily tell that the tiger was holding back a lot. It was his goal from the start. He deliberately pulled his attacks to the same strength level as Leo's. But why? And more importantly, how? It was something that only Leo could pull and yet this tiger pulled it out flawlessly.

He crouched next to Raph who was still frozen. "You must be really confused right now, right?" He said casually. He chuckled before continuing. "I don't blame you." He got up and sat down near the edge of the building. "Come to think of it …" He mused and rubbed his chin, the universal sign of thinking. "I'm curious, who's the leader that the rat choose this time?" He asked, sounding eager to know.

Raph flinched at his question. As if it wasn't enough that he knows exactly how he fights, he also knows that they just recently lost their leader. _'Who the shell is this guy?'_ He asked himself. _'Master Splinter hadn't chosen another leader yet. He was still too shocked about Leo's death that Master Splinter of all people sometimes came to the dojo late for their training. That's just how bad the leader's death had caused us.'_ He thought sadly.

Getting zero response, he just shrugged. "Never mind that, I'll just cut to the chase." He spoke with a little more serious tone. At the same moment when he finished, Donnie and Mikey finally woke up. "Good, you two are up. Now I don't have to tell you guys twice." He got up with a sigh.

Donnie and Mikey finally got up and saw the petrified Raph on the hard concrete. "Raph! You okay bro?" Mikey yelled and rushed to Raph's side. He along with Donnie helped Raph to get up.

"Who are you? Why did you attack us?" Donnie asked him, his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"That …" He raised his right paw and index finger. "… is a good question, Donatello." He said, back to his thinking pose.

"H-how did you know my name?" Donnie asked shakily.

He turned to Donnie and smirked. "I know more than just that, Donnie. Donatello Hamato, the Tech Master, fights using bo staff." He then points at Mikey. "Michelangelo Hamato, the Wild One, fights using dual nunchucks. Also …" He's now pointing at Raph. "Raphael Hamato, the Muscle, fights using dual sais." He then brought his hand down. "And last, but not least … Yoshi Hamato, the Master, the trainer and the leader of the Hamato clan." Seeing the speechless turtles in front of him, his grin widened. Now is to put the cherry on top. "There's one more, I believe … Leonardo Hamato, the Leader, fights using twin katanas."

"H-h-how did you know all of that?" Mikey asked, barely managed to get the words out.

"You guys really want to know? Come to the Byerly Building at midnight tomorrow and bring that rat along with you. Don't worry. No traps or anything, just a challenge. We will fight there. If the four of you didn't come …" At the speed that even the turtle's eyes couldn't catch, he lunged at Mikey and then stopped behind him with his claws out. Suddenly, three cuts were formed on Mikey's right upper arm. "… I'll do something even worse than that." With that, he disappeared without a trace.

 **Present time …**

By the time Raph had finished the story, Mikey's wounds were already treated. "He said he ain't workin' fo' the Shredder, sensei. But he made it clear that he knows that guy." He paused for a moment to glance at Master Splinter. "How about it, sensei?"

"If he is threatening my students, then I must stop him at all cost." He said firmly. "I have lost a son, I will not lose any more again."

 **The night of Leo's death …**

"My sons, what happened?" He asked then he glanced around the room. "Where is your brother?" As soon as he asked that, Mikey hugged him and burst into tears. Donnie just covered his eyes with his arm, sobbing and Raph turned away but Splinter could easily tell them that he's also crying. He knows something happened to Leo right at the moment Michelangelo who always cheerful started crying. "My sons, please tell me what happened to your brother."

"L-L-Leo i-is d-d-dead, sensei." Mikey answered, still sobbing at Splinter's chest. "W-We t-tried to get him out. B-but the b-boulders that trapped him were too heavy. W-w-we left him t-to find s-s-something to get him out, b-but, wh-w-hen w-we left, the b-b-building was destroyed and h-h-he was still inside a-and …" Mikey tried to get the words out but he couldn't do it properly. He was still too shocked that Leo was dead. His older brother was dead.

Splinter's eyes widened in disbelief. His son, his eldest son is dead.

 **The night of the challenge …**

What happened that night was still fresh on his head. From that night, he had been much more protective towards his family. Overprotective even. He couldn't bear losing anyone in his family anymore. He had vowed to protect his family much more seriously now. This man who challenged him wanted to hurt his family and there is not a chance he would let that happen.

When they met up, none of them exchanged any words, just proceed with the fight. The tiger mutant now brought his weapons with him. That includes three katana, two of which are sheathed on his belt and one on his back. The katana that is located on his back was covered by something oval covered in black bandages. Raph could have sword he knows what the oval object might be but he's not sure.

First, their sensei only stood back and the turtles are the ones that advanced. In the front was Raph, but just like the last time, he easily found his openings. His stab move, disturb his balance on his left leg then it would be a child's play to hit him. He used his lightning fast reflexes to the top, making his eyes glows golden. _'I've seen Tiger Claw do this but I never thought that I could also do the same thing.'_ He thought. Everything went slow for him. He could easily see the tracks of attacks, and predicted where they will go next.

His weapons were still sheathed but he was confident enough. Raph made a stabbing motion with his sai. Leo, who's currently on his highest alert dodged it easily and as usual, Raph's left feet was off position. But he didn't use it. Instead, he released all his strength in one punch on Raph's unguarded plastron. After the punch connected, Raph was flung back right to his brothers, bringing three of them down. Now, it's only him and his old master.

"It's now only you and me, Splinter."

"It is seems to be that way."

Leo drew his new twin katana he took from the Foot's armory. He will only use his real weapon if he really needs them. The two charged at each other at almost the same time. Leo knows that defeating Splinter won't be easy. Honestly he thought that defeating his brothers would drain quite a lot from him. What happened to them? Did they just somehow got weaker in the time span of one month?

That's not really the reason. Without his knowledge, his brothers need his leadership to fight as a team. Not only that, right now Leo was not acting as himself. Right now, he's … angry. Just like how Tiger Claw had said to him, anger and predator instinct is a tiger mutant's weapons as long as neither of them takes over. But that never crossed his mind.

Back to the fight, Splinter who's very observant even in serious fights could easily tell that all of the tiger's skills, movement and habits are familiar. In fact, he knows what kind of katas the tiger was using. The tiger might be fast but Splinter is still faster and much more skilled. All of his opponent's blows were blocked, countered, or dodged. He already had enough with the fight. While he never underestimates his opponents, he had predicted that the tiger was not skilled enough to defeat him. He found out that the tiger always makes the same opening every time he did his triple slice so he used it.

Still attacking and still on his "golden eyes" mode, he's having a very hard time dealing with his master. The fact that he never landed a blow only rubs salt on it. Slowly, he's losing himself to his own anger. His attacks now have more openings and they slowed down even though more power was added. That was all his old sensei needed to win. Without him realizing, Splinter had secured his win. Both of his hands are aiming for Leo's stomach area. The blow never connected as he blocked it with one sword. However, he was still flung back and crashed to the wall. Splinter's attack was so powerful that it left some cracks on the wall and Leo's sword snapped in half.

His opponent was already exhausted but he's not even breaking a sweat. "Surrender now villain, all I wanted is for you to stop hurting my family." He said loudly.

Leo struggled to stand up. His body was ready to give up but he forced it to stand up. "That is *cough* that is what you keep saying." He coughed up a few times from the damage, which thankfully were mostly absorbed by the shell. "That's what you keep saying before Leonardo died as well, isn't it?" He challenged. Leo took the bandage covered shell from his back and used it on his left arm. With its vertical grip, he could easily switch the shield from defending to attacking if he wanted.

Splinter's eyes widened at the statement. Leonardo's death was something that he kept blaming himself. Blaming that Leo's death was his fault. When he saw the tiger was up again and was attacking, he did the same skill he used earlier.

Leo managed to block it with his shield but it still threw him backwards just as hard. He planted the sword on the ground to gain grip with no avail. The sword broke as well but he didn't get pushed to the wall this time. He was about to attack again when he felt his feet giving up. He panted hard and coughed a few times, trying to catch his breath.

"Why are you attacking us? If you are not working for the Shredder, then why are you doing this? What is your reason?" Splinter asked.

"My reason?" He said. "MY REASON? YOU DARE ASKING ME THAT QUESTION?" He snapped. "DO YOU HAVE A REASON OF LETTING LEONARDO DIE? DO YOU?" He yelled. "Leonardo wants you dead, that's my reason."

The question stabbed him like a sword. The guilt inside of Splinter's heart started to overwhelm him. His heart throbbed at the reminder.

The wrapping on Leo's "Shield" was loosened by the blow earlier. The bandages were undone, revealing his turtle shell.

Splinter who raised the turtles already had the patterns of their shell embed on his brain. His eyes widened in shock that the pattern matched his son's shell. _'It cannot be.'_ He still couldn't believe it. Then, the tiger pulled out a katana which he recognized as well. It was Leonardo's first forged sword, no mistaking it. Him and Raphael helped Leonardo forged that sword. The sword also have a blue mask tied on its hilt. _'He is-'_ His thoughts was cut off by a battle cry.

Leo, once again charged at Splinter but this time, he didn't do anything to defend himself. He hit him with his shield, throwing him airborne. Still airborne, Leo made a jump and smashed down his shield right to Splinter who still didn't make any move whatsoever to defend.

When Raph woke up, Leo was standing on top of Master Splinter with his sword was ready to stab his chest. _'No way, did … did master Splinter just lost?'_ his eyes filled with horror. "M-Master Splinter." He called out but he doubted his voice would reach anyone at all.

Leo was ready to kill him but he can't bring his sword down. He tried but something was holding him. _'Why can't I kill him?'_ No matter how hard he tried, he can't do that. He got the golden chance but he can't.

Splinter opened his eyes slowly. He saw all the hatred on the eyes of the tiger. His eyes begun to form tears as he see the eyes of his _son_ with such hatred towards him. He couldn't care less of how his son was turned into a beast like this. "Leonardo, my son." He said as a drop of tear escaped from his eye. "If this is what you want, if my death will satisfy you then so be it." Leo's eyes widened at the statement. "I am sorry that I was a failure as a father. You have all the rights to hate me. But remember, Leonardo, do not blame your brothers." Even in this situation, his family always comes first. "Kill me, I will not blame you." He paused for a while as another tear dropped and he closed his eyes. "You will always be my son, Leonardo."

Tears runs down like a stream. His arms shaking. He doesn't know what to do anymore. More than anything, he wanted to kill the rat, but he can't. He still couldn't understand Splinter's words. It made it even harder for him to kill the rat. He put away the sword and sheathed it on his back, making Splinter's eyes opened in shock. He also put his shield back. Then, without a word, he ran away. He ran as fast as he could, ignoring the pain on his legs, leaving Splinter in confusion.

 _'Why?'_

 _'Why can't I kill him?'_

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 **Whew, done. Seriously, I teared up a lot trying to write this chapter, especially the conversation between Leo and Splinter. Yeah, everything was actually a big misunderstanding. His family still loved him. What? Do you think his family of all people would want Leo die? Not a chance. The detailed story of the night when Leo "died" would come on next chapter.**

 **BTW, Leo is not over powered in this chapter. He got strong because he was angry (if you haven't seen how strong Leo is when he's angry then watch the 4** **th** **season of TMNT 2k3. He spent half of the season being very angry at everything (yeah really, he did) to the point of injuring Splinter** ** _on purpose_** **when he lost control).**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please Review …**

 **Next chapter …**

 **April: Whoa, what happened to you guys?  
Raph: Some tiger freak show attacked us last night. I still ain't believin' my eyes that he won against Master Splinter.  
Donnie: Come to think of it, Sensei has been out of it since that fight. I wonder what's wrong with him.  
Mikey: Maybe 'cuz of that guy knows about Leo? He bought it up when we met him, maybe he brought it up when Master Splinter fought him.  
April: Um, guys? Who's Leo?  
Donnie: Well, April, there are actually four of us, not just three. A month ago, we lost our leader, Leonardo.**

 **Next on Tiger and Cub … Revelation and Depression. Stay tuned.**


	8. Chapter 8 : Revelation and Depression

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I'm a Christmas Party Planner and the job was the opposite of the party itself. IT'S HELL *cough* sorry, it's just really hard to make a good party. Anyway, I wrote this in between my free times. This chapter really goes well with my current (very light) depression. Please Enjoy (I don't know how but saying this sounds a bit out of place).**

* * *

 **Revelation and Depression**

Tiger Claw really hated this place. The stench of chemicals is strong in this room, making his nose hurts. Chemicals of all kind were stored and being experimented here, from harmless to deadly, from the known chemicals to the unknown of the universe, from earthly to alien. But this is not where he was going. His destination is the center part of the labs. The most protected part of the entire building aside from Shredder's room, of course. He stopped in front of a futuristic looking door. It was guarded by two Foot Elites who at the sight of him bowed and stepped aside from the door. He inserted his identity card to the authorization panel. The red lines around it turned blue and the door opened.

Only the high ranks of the Foot Clan could ever hope of knowing that this special part of the lab was used to do experiments with the Kraang's mysterious substance, the mutagen. Once he stepped inside, the smell was changed completely. The mutagen was nearly odorless, which is fortunate for his enhanced senses, making it seems to be inferior to other chemicals. However, he is not here to do experiments. He could not hope of understanding all these even if his life is depending on it. He is here to meet Stockman.

One week ago, he asked Stockman to do a new experiment, which the mad scientist gladly accepted due to the fact that he never attempted it before. Tiger Claw providing the subjects were a bonus. Yes, he abducted two humans to complete the experiment. He might be nice and protective to Leo but he's not by any means are "Good". He is evil and would not bat an eye about killing or torturing others. He will only do this when Leo was not around, though. The last thing he wants is to let the cub knows about his darker side. Well, he did nothing to hide it, but he wants it to be kept hidden.

Four days ago, he finds out that the experiment was a complete bust.

 **Four days ago …**

As he walked to the experiment lab, he could already hear some screams of agony from the test subjects echoing on the empty halls. Mutagen was not the friendliest chemicals around after all. Good for Stockman as he seems to enjoy them. _'I'll never understand that creep. How is someone enjoyed torturing their own kind, is beyond me.'_ However, it was convenient to have someone like him to come to, especially at times like this. When he entered, the two test subjects that he brought for the experiment was tied up to the wall. Their faces were beyond recognition.

He walked very quietly but it was due to his own habit. Stockman was working on some green chemicals which he quickly assumed to be mutagen and does not seem to notice him entering his lab. "I take it the experiment had failed, Stockman?" He asked with a low voice, gruff voice. Inside of the Foot Clan, to keep your loyal underlings stays that way is by inflicting fear. Tell them who is in charge and be sure that they learned their lesson. Otherwise, they will turn on you sooner or later.

Hearing the rough, unimpressed tone from behind him, he flinched, almost dropping the chemicals inside a glass container. Just like the Shredder, Tiger Claw's baritone voice was enough to impale even an adult's heart with fear. But he already used to those. "Apparently, just like what you speculated, re-mutation is impossible without mutagen." He said without turning around to face him.

"Did you use the instructions I gave you?" He inquired.

"Yes, I did." The scientist answered simply. "After I mutated the two subjects, both of them into a house fly, I re-mutated the smaller one into a bee. After that, I drained most of the bee mutant's blood, of course not letting him die in the process. After that, I transfuse most of the fly mutant's blood to the bee mutant. Well …" He paused, taking off his glasses then wiped them with his lab coat. "That abomination was the result." He used his glasses again and then gets back to what he was working at before Tiger Claw entered the room.

Tiger Claw was in deep thoughts. Maybe he messed up something. Not on Stockman's side, but on his. Maybe he chose the wrong test subjects. "Their blood type, is it the same?" He asked. Getting a misinformation from his informants is possible even though very unlikely.

He paused from his work for a moment. "Yes, they are. The two shared the same blood type."

It was strange. If the experiment failed, then how come Leo was able to re-mutate without any of those mess happen. In fact, re-mutation actually did some good and healed most of his internal wounds, most of which he figured to be very serious. He searched all of his memory to find anything that might have some connection with Leo's re-mutation. _'Leo, DNA, mutation, blood, fifteen years, New York …'_ His eyes widened in realization. "I got a hunch, it might work this time but I'm not sure." He said, earning Stockman's attention. "Dispose the bodies, I will return with new test subjects." With that, he exited the room.

After a few hours, he brought in two unconscious human. This time, other than the same blood type, he had added a new characteristic of the ones that he will use as test subjects.

 **Present time …**

Today is the day to see if the experiment goes well or not. Anxious and eager describes his feeling nicely at the moment. If this test was indeed successful, then the puzzle will be completed. If it doesn't, then he would lose even more pieces of the big picture. Just as he entered, he noticed that the test subjects as well as Stockman himself were nowhere in sight. Tiger Claw was sure the mad scientist should be at his lab at this hour. Turning on his heels, he stomped back to the door in aggravation. _'Where is that guy now?'_ He thought in irritation.

Then he remembered, there's only one way where someone could enter and leave his lab. The guards must know where he had gone to. "Hey! You there …" The Elite ninja turned around to see him. "Where did Stockman gone to?"

"Baxter Stockman left for the infirmary a few hours ago, master." He replied quickly.

Tiger Claw only sighed, holding out a groan. "Very well." The infirmary? What could that man be doing in there?

 **With Leo …**

Saying that he is stressed right now is a big understatement. After the fight with his family, he immediately returned to the Foot Clan building and gone straight to his quarter. He had to sneak inside due to the fact that had not re-wrapped his shell with bandages again just yet. Thankfully, no one noticed. He opened the door to his quarters which unlike the most other quarter inside of the building, it uses a more futuristic design, complete with passcode panel to open the door. Tiger Claw's quarter which located beside his also have the same one.

He got inside and closed the door behind him. His damage from the battle earlier had started to take effect. Thankfully his aching stomach, probably from blocked chi points, was the worst one. Other than that is that he got some bruises on his face. There are also his sore legs and a headache from overusing his cat instinct. Splinter is strong, really strong. He needed to get even stronger than he is right now.

 _'But would it be enough?'_ He asked himself. It wouldn't and he knows it. Getting strong enough would only defeat his family, not enough to _kill_ them. He had really thought that killing his family would be the easy part and defeating them is the hard part. But, how about now? Everything had been reversed. He had him pinned to the ground with his katana hovering above Splinter's chest. Just one stab downward is enough to do the job and yet, he can't. Thinking about it only makes his headache worse.

There's also the last part of the battle, when Splinter dropped his defense completely. What happened that time? ' _Why would he let my attacks to knock him down? Is he underestimating me?'_ One by one, the questions came to his head but most were left unanswered. Splinter was not the type to look down on his opponents, especially the ones that would kill him. Then it hits him. What did he mean that time? Had he found out that it was Leo all along? Is that why? All these only confuse him even more. Why he couldn't kill his family might have an answer already, in spite of the fact that he would rather kill himself before he admits it, but the reason why Splinter let him to try and kill him was left without an answer.

Feeling like he wouldn't get an answer anytime soon, he decided to go for a walk until his adrenaline calmed down. He couldn't sleep with all these. He needed to find a way to sleep as resting is essential no matter who you are or what you do. But, how could he rest? He is too stressed, there are too many things happening inside of his head. He just hoped a walk would be good enough. His natural adventurous spirit also wanted him to explore the parts of this large building.

Now that he had decided, he took his gears off. Putting his prized katana on a weapon stand Tiger Claw bought him, then, he placed his shell on the corner of the room, making a mental note to wrap it again when he got back. He looked at the clock to note what time is it. 5.04 AM. _'That long?'_ He was startled to discover just how much time he had spent to sort his thoughts and failed. His thoughts were still scrambled, that's why he wanted to go for a walk in the first place.

He just sighed, then, he opened the door. He walked around the building normally but aimless. That is, until a strong aroma hits his nose. He could easily identify what was creating that smell. Alcohol, and lots of it. It came from a lone wooden door. Curious of what inside, he asked one of the Foot ninja that happened to be walking by. "What's in there?"

The Foot ninja had to look up to meet his eyesight due to Leo's 6'1 (and still growing) tall body. "It's a bar inside. The others usually came here on day off or when they are stressed about something. There weren't a lot of people coming at this hour though." He said then he walked away.

The Foot clan got a bar? What do you know? You do learn something new every day. _'Stressed, huh?'_ He wondered if it would solve his as well.

 **The lair …**

"Hey guys!" April shouted from the lair entrance. No one answered. She walked quickly to the main room to find it empty. "Um, guys?" She called out again. She quickly panicked when there's still no response from anyone.

From behind her, Casey also entered the room. "What's wrong, April?" He asked but his question was answered when he noticed that the turtles were not on the main room. "Yo Raph, you around here?" He yelled even louder than April did. Strange that no one was here at this hour.

"Oh, April, Casey, you two are here." A voice came from behind the two. It was Donnie who was standing in front of the lab door.

"Donnie, where's everyone?" April asked.

Donnie turned around without a word and signals them to come with him inside of his lab. The two followed him without a question. April gasped and closed her mouth with her hands after getting side of the lab. Raph and Mikey were lying unconscious on the bed. "Raph's plastron was cracked from the fight last night and Mikey still won't wake up even though his injury wasn't as serious as Raph's." He said softly. "Well, Raph should wake up right about…" He said then paused after hearing Raph's grunting. "… now."

Donnie, April and Casey all rushed to Raph's side. "Raph, you Ok dude?" Casey asked.

"No, I'm not. It feels like I just got hit by a truck."

"Yup, Raph's good. Mikey still doesn't even showing any sign of waking up, though." Donnie said.

"Too bad, I even bought some pizza before coming here." April said, hitting an idea to Donnie's head.

"That's it." He burst out all of a sudden. "April, where's the pizza?" He asked. April reached for her bag which looks a lot like a mailman's bag and took out a box of pizza. Donnie opened it and took out a slice. He brought it close to Mikey's nose.

Mikey seems to catch the smell and opened his eyes slowly. "Hm … pepperoni." He said then he took the pizza from Donnie's hand.

"Works every time."

April and Casey looked stunned. But, it was Mikey they were talking about so it wasn't much of a surprise. "How did you know that would work, Donnie?" She asked.

"Well, that's what Leo always did to …" He then stopped after he remembered Leo again. His smile disappeared almost instantly. Mikey who already started eating his pizza actually stopped and Raph just looked away.

Silence strikes thought the room. It was a rather tense silence. "Donnie, what's wrong?" April asked.

"Yeah, Don. And who's Leo?" Casey asked him, he was just as curious as April is.

Donnie shared a glance with his two brothers who nodded at the same time. "Well …" He sighed nervously. "We're not actually three turtle brothers. There are actually four of us brothers. Mikey was the youngest, I'm the second youngest and Raph wasn't actually the eldest. Our oldest brother was Leonardo. He was our leader, the one that keep us together in a fight. Mikey looks up to him, I respect him and Raph secretly admired him." After that, he stopped talking, letting the silence consume the room once more.

"Where is he now?" April asked again. "Why did I never meet him before and why did you guys never even mention him?" There was an uncomfortable silence after she asked the question before someone finally answered.

Raph was the one who spoke. "He's dead …" He then paused to get off from his bed. "He died a few days before we saved you from the kraang. That time, we were going to attack the TCRI building."

April felt awful knowing that she had just reminded them of a very memory. "TCRI building … the one that was being rebuilt right now?" She asked after she recalled the name. Raph nodded, confirming her thoughts.

"That night, we're going to attack the kraang, or so we thought." Donnie continued the story. "When we got there, there was nothing inside of the building. It was a trap made by the kraang to kill us. Leo was trapped by some boulders when the ceiling blows up."

 **The night of Leo's death … (A/N: To make it easier for you guys to compare this to chapter 1, every small parts of sentence that Leo heard that night were written in Bold** ** _)._**

"What the shell are ya talkin' about, Donnie?" Raph snapped loudly. "Leo was trapped in there. We can't just **leave him** like that!" He's really angry right now. ' _Is he suggesting that we should leave Leo?'_ He thought. "We can't **leave Leo** here Donnie." He said, but no longer yelling at his little brother. Leo was trapped and obviously hurt.

Donnie was also furious. Raph wasn't thinking that he suggested them to just leave Leo to die, could he? He loved Leo just as much as Raph and Mikey is and he felt a bit insulted that his loyalty was questioned. "Raph, calm down, I gave him a strong dose of painkiller. He will be immobilized but it improves his chance on surviving this. He **will get better** only if we could get him out. Just **remember the plan** and we can get him out from this place."

"Then what if the kraang comes back, Don!?" Mikey yelled in anger, shocking his older brothers. "This is their trap, if they came back when we left, **Leo will die** for sure." He clenched his hand into a fist. "Did you forget **Master Splinter's orders**? That we leave NO ONE BEHIND!" He screamed out the last part to make his point.

"Then what are you guys gonna do!? Just standing around and wait until Leo die here?" Donnie snapped back. He couldn't believe how closed minded his brothers are. "I'm not the guy with the plan. It was Leo's job. I can't make plans, traps or find the best way to survive. Heck, I'm practically brain dead right now. I couldn't even think properly and this is the only plan I could think of. It was simple, all we have to do is to bring back some of my heavy tools from the garage. Once we got them, we could use it to get Leo out of the debris that is SLOWLY KILLING HIM IF WE DON'T HURRY!"

Donnie getting angry like that made Raph and Mikey thinks about the plan again, but this time, a little bit cool headed than earlier. "Okay, then **let's hurry**."

With a heavy heart, the three brothers left the building. Not far from the building, however, they stopped at a sound of explosives being detonated. All three pairs of eyes turned around in horror to see the building where Leo was trapped in is being blown apart by one explosion after another.

"L-Leo …" Mikey was speechless at the scene of the building was being obliterated with Leo _still_ inside. "No … NO! LEO!" He ran back to the direction of the building but his arms were caught by his brothers. "LET ME GO! I HAVE TO GO THERE! LEO'S STILL THERE!" But his brothers weren't listening. This is for his own good. Getting close to the TCRI building while it was exploding is a certain death, however, Mikey wasn't even thinking about that. All he could think of is that Leo was still inside. "LEO! …"

 **Present time …**

"After that, we decided … that we shouldn't talk about what happen that night. It brings too many painful memories …" Donnie said sadly. He then took a quick glance at Mikey who had put his pizza back down. Mikey had covered his eyes with his arm, holding back his sobs where some managed to get out. "… especially for Mikey." He continued.

The gloomy mood inside of the room could be felt from miles away. "I'm sorry about your brother, Donnie." April finally spoke, breaking the tense silence.

Donnie smiled but that couldn't mask his own sadness. "He had been out leader for as long as I could remember. He always protected us. Being a leader is not an easy task. There are times when he will complain about it, but he kept going … for us. Now, we could only hope that Leo finally finds the peace he had deserved."

April glanced around the lab and something caught her attention. There is photo frame with a photo of the Hamato Family members on the picture. However, a part of it was torn and it seems to be intentional. April didn't want to ask about it no matter how curious she was.

Donnie, however, noticed her line of sight. "That's our family photo. The five of us keeps a copy each. Raph's and Mikey's were torn as well, and yes, it was intentioned." He pulled out the part of the torn photo from his shell. He handed it over to April. She hastily took it from Donnie's hand and handled it as if her life were depending on it. "That's Leo. The three of us torn out our photos, Master Splinter's is still good and Leo's inside of his room is still untouched. We did it because we're not strong enough to bear this yet, even now, I still can't believe that night actually happened."

 **Tiger Claw's P.o.V … Foot Clan HQ**

It worked … I can't believe it actually worked. I was looking for Stockman at the infirmary to either yell at him or bite his head off for not informing me about the fate of my test subjects. I was about to smash his tiny human head to the wall but then he told me about the result. While the first two were some complete failures, these two were not. The first two subjects were just, to put it roughly, shoved into the test. The next ones, however, was handpicked by myself. The conditions:

They are a human father and a human son, with direct blood connection, a kid with his biological father and vice versa.

The re-mutation works. Finally, the big picture has been cleared. I knew it was too much to be a coincidence. Leo's date of "birth" was too close to the time I had lost my son. He lived in the same city as to where it happened and he actually lived in the sewers, the same place where he had lost him in the first place. I feel like an idiot to not notice all of these. I mean, the clues were everywhere, I even felt a strange urge to protect him when I found him. For a killer like I am to feel something like that was too strange for words.

"I have to go somewhere." I informed Stockman who is still standing in front of me.

"What about the test subjects?" He asked.

"Do whatever you want with them." I said as I left the room. Honestly, I couldn't careless of what will happen to those two, or anything else for that matter. Right now, my mind was set on one thing. I have to find Leo. But I still don't know if I should tell him about this. Something that came out of the blue was never convincing, especially something as big as this. The fact that Leo _was_ a tiger mutant before he became a turtle.

The fact that he's actually my long lost son.

Ugh, even my head really hurts right now. There were still too many questions. Like, how did Leo got mutated into a turtle in the first place? I pushed it out at the moment. Now, I want to find him, maybe not revealing anything yet, but I need to get him and cuddle him to sleep. Huh, what's up with that thought? Leo was right. I am being a softy around him. I guess it's natural after I found out that he was my son.

I asked some of the Foot ninjas if they saw Leo anywhere. Most of them said that they spotted him walking around the fifth floor which is filled rooms that are mostly used by a regular ninja. Dojos, Food courts, bars, dorms etc. Maybe he got bored and wanted to train for a little while.

After searching, however, he was not on any of the dojo or the food court and he definitely won't be at the dorms. I think about where he might be at, and then, I heard an argument coming from inside of the bar.

"I think you have had enough, sir." It was definitely the bartender's voice. I was and still a regular in that bar so I know. "You have had seven bottles already." He said again, sounded a bit mad. That guy must be quite a drinker to finish seven bottles and from the bartender's tone, this argument must have been going for quite some time.

I just shrugged, wishing for the best to happen.

"Just fuck off. If ye'r worried 'bout the pay, don't. I have the money so why don't ya just get me s'me more b'fore I hit yer face." Another voice escaped through the gaps on the door.

I stopped frozen on my tracks. "Leo?" No, that can't be right. It sounded a lot like Leo, but a little bit … drunk? Okay, a lot of drunk, but, what would Leo would be doing inside?

"Look, Leo, is it? I know you have the money but there's a limit to how much someone-" Then, the sound of someone punching the table and the table breaking cuts him off.

"Just shut up. Ye'r making my head hurts." That's undoubtedly Leo.

* * *

 **Uh oh! What's happening to Leo? Why is he doing this? What could have caused him to resort to something like alcohol? Will he find out that his family never did betray him? Will his brothers know that it was really Leo who fought them? How about his sensei, what will he do about all this?**

 **I'm the writer of this fic but why am I asking all these questions? (LOL)**

 **Yeah, I showed some of Tiger Claw's evil, uncaring side in this chapter. What do you expect? He's a villain.**

 **Anyway…**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please review…**

 **Next chapter:**

 **Tiger Claw: Leo, why are you doing this to yourself? You know you are better than that.  
Leo: I-I don't … I think I'm … I'm just … *sigh* I don't know.  
Tiger Claw: Is it about your family?  
Leo: No, no, i-it was … Yes, it's about my family.**

 **Next chapter of Tiger and Cub: Meeting and Chances. Stay tuned.**


	9. Chapter 9 : Encounter and Chances

**Update! A bit later than I had planned but, it's better late than never, right?**

* * *

 **Encounter and Chances**

What the hell am I thinking, trying to drown my emotions using the devil's drink? Me? Leonardo? Trying to escape the reality? I am NOT that low to choose such method as a shortcut. That is, what I had thought I was.

Who am I kidding? I'm not strong.

When I entered the bar, I don't know if I was supposed to be surprised or not. Just like the Foot ninja had informed me earlier, there are not many people here. Actually, there's nobody here other than a bartender and myself. I could feel it that he's shooting me with a confused glance but I just keep scanning the room that I've never been into before. It was pretty simple. Some wooden chairs and tables, stools near the bar counter and some of the drinks were displayed behind the glass case. Although it was strange that this place have American feel but the building itself has a Japanese theme.

After I finished sight-seeing, I slowly approached the bar counter. The bartender was staring at me with a mix of confusion and curiosity. "I've never seen you before." He said after I was only a few meters from the counter. "You must be the new kid that Tiger Claw brought in, am I correct?" He asked. He seems to be quite friendly for someone who works in a Foot clan building.

"Well, yeah. How did you know?" I asked back. It was surprising that someone that I never met before knows me.

"Tiger Claw _is_ the Foot Clan's Second-in-Command after all. When he said he was going to bring in someone else, the news spread like a wildfire here. You could say your arrival was expected." He said as he cleans some of the clear colored glasses with a white cloth. "What we didn't expect is that he was bringing another tiger mutant to the Foot ranks." He continued.

"Is that so?" I kind of felt welcome in here, something that I never feel back at the lair, something I have never know how it feel when I was still Leonardo, the turtle mutant. My former family had always been expecting big things from me and yet, I never get anything that I had expected from them. I never even get something as simple as a thank you. Then, when they "thanked" me that night on the TCRI building, they did it with the worst way I could possibly think of.

"Mutants are quite rare, you know. Tiger mutants were even more. I have seen and heard about a lot of mutants but the only tiger mutant I know beside Tiger Claw is you." He replied. "Something is bothering me though." He said, narrowing his eyes on me.

"Um, what is it?" I asked, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze.

"There's a rumor that Tiger Claw had a son before he joined the Foot Clan. Is it you?"

"What? No. Of course I'm not. He just found me in the woods and saved me. What makes you think I'm his son?" Is this guy for real?

He closed his eyes then shrugged. "You looked a lot like him, almost a hardcopy, just shorter." Just then, the door opened. Both his and my attention switched to the door. Entering the room is a girl, from the looks of it, she's around my age. She wore some kind of black jumpsuit with silver plating in some places. Her black hair is short. Some of the hair on the back of her head is dyed yellow. It's easy to determine that she's Japanese. I find her to be quite beautiful. It was hard to notice but she had a concealed kodachi on her back. So, she's a beautiful girl who is also a fighter.

She walked towards the bartender who bowed down to her. "The Shredder is expecting you. His meeting was about to start." She said. She speaks English fluently but her Japanese accent is very noticeable.

"Very well, mistress. I will be there in a few minutes." He spoke at utmost respect to her.

After that, she turned around on her heels and left the room quickly. I have a strange feeling in my gut, something that I can't explain. What is this feeling? I just shove it away for now. But, I can't shake the feeling that she stole a quick glance on me before she left the room. I wonder if I maybe look stupid. I mean, I'm inside of the Foot Clan HQ and yet I'm wearing casual clothes. This is mostly to show that I am not associated with the Foot Clan though.

"Mistress?" I asked, curious as of why he was addressing her like that.

"Mistress Karai, she's the clan's Third-in-Command and is the Shredder's daughter." He replied quickly. Wow, a real life princess, or at least technically a princess. I'm pretty sure Foot Clan doesn't run on medieval system. "Well, I have to go now." He said then he took one bottle of beer and shoved it to my hand. "That one's free, if you wanna buy more, just wait until the next shift start. It's only in about 30 minutes." He quickly left the room.

I was not sure at first, thinking if I should even try it. Beer was considered light compared to the other alcohol I saw being displayed behind the bar counter so I decided to just try it. Taking a gulp, I almost spat back the liquid that entered my mouth but I stopped it and swallowed everything. How could people like this? It tasted terrible.

I took a long, thoughtful look at the barely depleted bottle. Will this actually help me with my problem? Only one way to find out. I forced the content of the whole bottle down, almost gagging. But slowly, the foul taste fades. I felt a small dizziness afterwards, but not immediately. I waited there for about 10 minutes before the effects started to kick in. My body felt warm and for some reason, I became calmer in a sense. It was now much easier to shove away all of the things I could hardly get my head off from.

After a while, another man entered. He must be the other bartender that was going to cover up for the guy earlier. I ordered another one. After finishing the second bottle, I couldn't stop from ordering more and more. I think it was after my fourth one then everything is blurry. I can't remember much about what happened. All remembered is that I hit something really hard that it broke. I think I also yelled a lot and almost chewed someone's head (figuratively not literally). That is, until I woke up in the morning, then I almost got my head chewed off.

When I woke up in the morning, I was surprised to find myself in Tiger Claw's room. My body felt sore that was even worse than after the fight. To top everything, my headache was almost unbearable. I tried to recall what happened then I remembered getting myself drunk last night. The only thing I have on my head at the moment is a realization. So this is what the humans called a hangover. It sucked. This will be my first and my last time getting THAT drunk. I'm not planning on stopping, really. It felt way too good to forget about all of my problems, even if it's just temporary.

Then it hit me. If I'm inside of Tiger Claw's quarters, then he must have seen my little stunt that night. Oh God, I'm in so much trouble. I shot up from the bed only to get my headache worse. I opened my eyes slowly to find that I'm alone in this room. I sighed softly while closing my eyes "Whew, he's not here." I said in relief.

"Who's not here?" A voice asked.

If only he'd never done this before, I would've screamed like a little girl. Still, that doesn't mean I didn't get startled or scared as this still managed to make me let a small, catlike shriek out. "STOP DOING THAT." Seriously, he gotta stop appearing out of nowhere like that. It's a wonder my heart hadn't given up on me yet.

He just chuckled at my outburst. "Hehe, sorry, I didn't know you would be that surprised." He said. "On a more important note…" His voice suddenly got more serious. "… you should already know-" He said but I cut him off.

"I know." I said softly as I lowered my head in shame. "I'm sorry. I know I'm still underage to-"

"Leo." He cuts me off. "You know it's not about you're still underage to drink alcohols. I don't care about you being underage but that's not the point right now. Don't try to change the real topic." He said with a disappointment in his tone.

I huffed softly. "I should've known better, aren't I?" I don't know what else to say. It was all I can think of right now. "I'm sorry, it's just … I can't take this anymore."

"It's about your family, isn't it?"

I nodded slowly. "I just don't know what to do anymore. I want my revenge, I want to kill them more than anything in the world … but, I can't. I don't know why but, I can't. I can hurt them, but not kill."

"You still love them."

Although I know that was not a question, I still nodded. "Even after what they did to me, how they never respected me in any way, how they always question my leadership…" I paused and clenched my paws into fists. "… even after they left me to die in that building, I still love my brothers, my family." The pain, it felt like my heart was being punched. "I still can't get over it. No matter what I try to get them off from my head … I still love my family. I realized it after fighting them."

"So you resorted to the very thing you hated the most."

"Yes." I answered simply. "If you want me to stop … I can't … not yet. I needed more time. It helped me. I never felt so good before, never so relaxed, or at peace. I need some more time before I could stop."

"I understand Leo. But this won't help you forever. You need to face the reality with your own self." He said before he gets out from the room. I could tell that he understands me but the fact that he was very disappointed swallowed everything else. It only adds even more weight on me. Before he opened the door, however, he threw me a piece of paper. It was a … doodle of a map? I look at him, confused. "You said you want to calm your senses. It was a map to a place called Murakami's. Murakami served the best green tea around but he only give it to certain costumers. Just tell him that you're my son and he'll surely give you some of his best mix." He said as the door closed quickly.

"Wait!" but it's too late, he already left. I went after him only to find that he already disappeared.

 _"Just tell him that you're my son…"_ His voice kept ringing inside of my head. What does he mean by that?

 **A few days later with April … No P.o.V**

April O'Neil had been friends with the turtles for over a month now and there are a lot of things that happened the past month. She had been kidnapped, begun her kunoichi training, met even more mutants like Leatherhead, saw Raph's pet turned into a mutant and many more. She wondered if she would ever get her normal student live back. Being friends with mutants and is a target of an entire alien species doesn't help much. Of course she enjoyed being friends with the nice mutants, but, being hunted down by aliens was anything but fun.

Speaking of mutants, right now she's walking to the Murakami's to buy some food for her mutant friends. They could've just bought the food themselves but she just happened to be walking to the Lair and her route passes the Murakami's.

As tough as it is, it seems like her luck today betrayed her. Kraang bots came out of nowhere, as if they just materialized out of thin air. It's not impossible, however. Their advanced tech could do almost anything. They could've just invented some kind of teleporting device for all she knows. But now, she was being ambushed and outnumbered. There's only one option for her not to be captured, run away and call the guys on the lair to help her. That's just what she did.

Turning around quickly, she sprinted away, as fast as she could. The kraang bots were chasing her, but they're not using their weapons. They wanted her alive from what it seems. Not something very reassuring. She just kept running, looking back a when she got a chance. Unfortunately, she's not creating any distance between her and the kraang bots. She took out her T-Phone (the one Donnie built for her) to call the turtles … only to find that she had forgotten to recharge it earlier.

"Stupid April." She mused to herself while smacking her head lightly.

April kept running on the sidewalks until more kraang bots appeared in front of her, forcing her to turn right to the alleyway. Bad idea, as it turned out to be a dead end. "Uh oh." She stopped and turned around. The kraang bots had already blocked all the opening. "Why is there ALWAYS a dead end on every chase scene?" She said as she kept taking a step back then she got tripped on something and fell down. She kept moving backwards until she had her back against the wall. _'I'm so dead.'_ The kraang bots kept getting closer to her. One of the kraang reached for her but stopped midway.

All of the kraang bots stopped moving. It was almost like the time around her had stopped.

They slowly toppled down to the ground, not at one piece, but two. They were all had a cut on their body, splitting them in two. Behind the bots, stood a large, tall shadowy figure holding a sword in his right hand. Slowly, he sheathed the sword on his back and turned around. He walked towards April, causing her to panic. Once he got close to her, however, he just offered his arm and spoke in a very calming voice.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

April was dumbfounded at first. She had thought that this man was going to hurt her. At a snail's pace, she accepted the offer and grabbed into an oversized hand in front of her. It felt wrong. It doesn't feel like she was holding a human's hand, but it's more like holding a cat's paw. Nonetheless, she had to thank this man for helping her. "Thank you." It was too dark for her to make out anything from the man in front of her. He's tall, that's for sure. But his voice suggested that he was just the same age as April herself.

The lights on the alleyway flickered and turned on, illuminating the darkness and showed her savior's true appearance. She got a startled look on her face as she didn't expected her life to be saved by a mutant other than the turtles or her friends. He suddenly put his hand on her mouth, intercepting any sound that might escape from it. This sent her into another panic attack with her thoughts that this ma- mutant was going to hurt her.

"Don't scream, I'm not going to hurt you just don't scream." He said softy. His tone was very reassuring and April knew she could trust his words. She nodded slowly. Slowly but surely, he let go of her mouth as he sighed in relief. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's ok." She said. She chuckled softly, much to the tiger's confusion. "You really don't need to cover my mouth like that, you know. I was just surprised, that's all. I've seen some weird things in my life and just seeing a mutant won't be enough to scare me to the point of screaming for my life." She informed.

He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry, I just thought that you're going to scream for help." His ears had a tint of red and April finds it cute. This tiger mutant was quite tall with over 6 foot height. He has a well build body. He wore black cargo shorts, blue short sleeved hoodie that was only zipped halfway, and beneath it, he wore a t-shirt with lighter shade of blue. His blue eyes glow in the dark and his face has a friendly smile on it.

April chuckled again. "That's ok, people like me weren't considered to be "normal" in this city anyway." She said. "My name is April, by the way, April O'Neil." She continued as she offered her right hand.

He reached for her hand. "My name is Leonardo, but you can just call me Leo." He said as he shook hands with her.

She flinched at the name. _'Leonardo? That's the same name as the guys' dead brother.'_ She thought. She dismissed it as just one coincidence. There are a lot of people who would name their son after the famous artist. "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? You sounded like you're not any older than I am." She asked.

"Oh, yeah, people always thought I was older from my height. I'm 15 years old." He answered.

"You're the same age as me then." The two chuckled together. "Anyway, thanks for saving me."

"No problem. I really hated those aliens anyway. Oh, I need to ask you something." Leo said. He tried to find something in his pocket. When he found it, he pulled his paw out. He's holding a piece of paper and opened it. She showed it to her using his left paw while his right paw was pointing at the paper from the side. Leo has a goofy smile on his face this time. "Do you happen to know where this place is? It's called the Murakami's and well, I'm kinda lost." He said, embarrassed about the fact that he couldn't find this place even with a map.

"Of course, I can take you there. I was going there as well."

* * *

 **Here's the thing... I don't know why but right now I'm leaning a bit to Leo x April for the pairing. It happened after I thought that since Leo is a "villain" in this story, getting him paired with Karai won't bring too much tension. For now, I'll empty the pairing so you guys can decide for me. Should it be Leorai or Leo x April? Tell me in review or PM me for your choice.**

 **BTW**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please review ... Critics, comments, ideas, whatever it is would be accepted.  
**

 **Next up on Tiger and Cub: Missions and Things Blowing Up. With some info from April, Leo's new mission is to seek and destroy a kraang ship in hiding, will he succeed?**


	10. Chapter 10 : Missions and Things Part I

**Update!**

 **A/N: Sorry about disappearing like that. I was being an idiot by thinking I could manage my college things, writing fanfiction and gaming all at the same time and the next thing I know I was sleeping on the hospital bed. So, that means less gaming for me if I need to manage everything better.**

* * *

"Well, this is it. The Murakami's Noodle Shop." April declared in front of the tiger mutant.

Leo took a moment of silence to take all the details of the … noodle shop, apparently. It was quite a simple building with the noodle shop on the first floor of it. You could tell from the Japanese kanji sign of the chef's own name, Murakami, and the color of the building itself that this place is owned by a Japanese man. He remembered he had passed this place a few times back when he was still with his brothers but he never really paid attention to it. After a brief moment, she walked inside and Leo followed immediately.

Inside, there is a man wearing round, black glasses and Japanese chef outfit. "Good evening, Murakami-san." April greeted.

"Good evening, April-san." He greeted back. In spite of the fact that he's blind, he could tell that there is someone standing beside April.

April understood just by looking. "Oh, this is a friend of mine." She said.

"My name is Leonardo, and you must be Murakami, is that correct?" Leo asked a little firmly. This man is blind, he could tell.

"Yes, my name is Murakami. So, Leonardo-san is not a Hamato. It was rare for April-san to bring a costumer aside from the Hamato family." He said. Leo's eyes widened at Murakami's claim and it didn't go unnoticed by April. Questions about her knowing his family kept spinning around his head. "I must say, your voice is very familiar, Leonardo-san. Did we met somewhere before?" He asked, snapping Leo out from his thoughts.

Leo remembered what Tiger Claw had said to him a few days ago, about telling this Murakami guy that he was his son. Ever since that day, Leo had been searching for Tiger Claw to get answers, but he was nowhere around the Foot Clan HQ, even until now. "Uh … I'm afraid we haven't, Murakami-san. But, you may have met my father, Tiger Claw?" He said without hesitation. For a moment, he felt a strange happiness by saying that he was Tiger Claw's son, but he had no idea why.

"You are Tora's son?" He asked without hiding that he was surprised. Is it a pleasant surprise, or a bitter surprise? Neither Leo nor April knows.

'Tora? Who's Tora?' He asked mentally. He thinks quickly about what Murakami meant by it. 'Let's see, he must be referring to someone. Must be Tiger Claw, I mean, who else could it be? Tiger Claw is Tora no Tsume in Japanese.' Yes, he is referring to Tiger Claw. "Yes, I am." Leo replied as fast as possible.

"Ah, no wonder your voice was familiar. You sounded a very lot like your father. Please, take a seat, Leonardo-san, April-san." It was a pleasant surprise for Murakami. After all, standing in front of him is the son of the man that had saved him, a long time ago. Leo and April shared confused glance but then the two took a seat near the counter. "What can I do for you, Leonardo-san?"

"Well, I'm just here to buy something for me to eat and … my father told me that you make the best green tea in New York so I'm also here to try it." Leo explained simply. "But, I still don't know what I should order though."

"You should try Pizza Gyoza." April suggested from beside him. "It's really good." She added.

"Pizza Gyoza? I never heard of it before." Leo said. It was a strange name for a dumpling. Leo has a vast knowledge about Japanese culture but he never heard of this one before. He knows that gyoza have a lot of varieties and is only limited to the chef's imagination so it might be only available here.

"Well, it was because Murakami-san invented it just a few weeks ago." She said, confirming Leo's theory.

"I added it to the menu specially to thank the Hamato family." Murakami then added. "It is one of my best works."

Leo shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I'll try some then." There isn't much to be said. If both the shop owner and the costumer themselves recommended it, then it should be good.

"Then it would be pizza gyoza and special green tea for Leonardo-san. How about you, April-san?"

"I'll take six pizza gyoza, five of them to go." She said. Murakami nodded and then he went to the kitchen to prepare the orders. April stole a glance on Leo. His face make it looks like he was troubled about something. Maybe about the Hamato Clan? "Leo, can I ask you something?" Leo made a "go ahead" gesture so she continued. "When Murakami-san talked about the Hamato family, you seemed surprised." When she said it, Leo flinched which means her assumption was indeed correct. There was a small pause between that and her question. "Do you have some kind of connection with the Hamatos?" She finally asked.

Silence strike trough the noodle shop. April wondered if it was the right thing to do to ask Leo that question. After about half minute of pause, Leo sighed. "More or less, you're friends with the turtles?" He asked. She nodded so he continued. "Well, my "connection" with the Hamato Clan was different than you are."

"Different?"

"Yeah, I … uh … I'm here in New York for one purpose only. To hunt down and eliminate the Hamato Clan." Leo said seriously. April, eyes wide, stared at Leo. At first she thought it was just a joke but then she saw the seriousness in his eyes. Hatred, anger, fury all mixed inside, making his innocent blue eyes looked like a predator ready to strike its target. Leo noticed the fear on April's. He needs to correct this fast. "Whoa, don't worry. All I want is the turtles and their rat sensei for my revenge. I want to kill them in a fair fight. Also, I don't take hostages if that's what you were thinking right now."

Those words, even though April could feel honesty in them, it only provided a small amount of comfort. To know that there is someone with so much hate towards her mutant friends whose like a second family to her not only surprised her, it's also concerning. But, what could the Hamato Clan done that made Leo want to take a revenge on them? "But, why would you? They are good people." She asked in disbelief.

Leo huffed, amused for some reason. "Good people, huh? Well, I won't blame you for thinking like that as well. They are good people as long as you're useful for them. Once you outlive your usefulness for them, they will stab you in the back with the worst way you could imagine. That happened to their oldest brother and I'm here for some payback." He said then he punched his palm with his fist, a "ready to fight" gesture. "They let him die and I will not just stand around."

"I-it-it can't be true." It can't be, right? They were completely devastated from losing their oldest brother. She saw it herself how Raph was speechless and Mikey bursting into tears of just remembering him. "They told me about what happened to their brother. They said that Leo was the only one who could hold the team together." She needs answers, like, right now.

"So they realized that AFTER they killed him? Fitting." He said with a smug expression. "We have different opinions about the Hamato Clan. But, April…" He then reached for her hand and held them with a firm, yet caring grip. "… Please, you have to be careful around them." He said with a completely different tone. It was filled with concern, worries and sincerity. He's worried about her but he didn't know why.

They stayed in that position for a good few minutes, eyes staring at each other and hardly blinking. That was until the two of them simultaneously realized that they were holding hands. The two teenagers pulled up their hands (or paws on Leo's case) and broke the shared glance the two had earlier. They started to blush, although only lightly. Neither of them was now brave enough to make eye contact. Feeling like he had to apologize, Leo opened his mouth to talk, only to get cut off by April.

"I'm sorry. But, I still can't believe that they were people like that…" She said. Leo didn't take any offense. After all, they just met not even a half hour ago. There's no one normal enough to trust someone they just met. However, April still believed him in the same time. _'No one was able to fake an expression like that, expressions of hurt and betrayed.'_ Indeed, nobody could. "… but I'll keep that in mind." She continued. The mood was kind of awkward between April and Leo now, and it would only get worse if not for Murakami coming out from the kitchen to give them their orders. He put the plates down, along with a plastic bag with five boxes inside near April and a tea set near Leo. He immediately goes back to the kitchen, much to their confusion.

Leo picked up one of the pizza gyoza on the plate with the chopsticks. He inspected the food closely first. There wasn't a lot of difference with other Japanese dumplings he had eaten. After putting it on his mouth and chewing a few times … "Wow, this is the best dumpling I've ever had." He exclaimed. "You're right, April. This is good." He said before stuffing his mouth with another one.

April looked at Leo who is now eating his food with a smile on his face. "See? I told you it was good." She said cheerfully. They ate together with April listening and sometimes adding Leo's comments about the dumplings. One would've thought of Leo as a food critic the way he made his comments. April noticed Leo's vast knowledge about Japanese culture. "Are you from Japan, Leo?" She asked. It should be obvious that he's not since he uses fluent English with some Brooklyn accent slipping once in a while.

"Nah, I just really fascinated about the Japanese culture." He said. "Do I looked or maybe sounded like I'm Japanese?" He asked, raising one eyebrow without losing the smile he had.

April chuckled at his question. "No, of course you're not."

After finishing up their meal, Leo offered her some of his tea in which she happily accepted. "He was right, this is really calms my mind." Leo said after taking a sip of his tea, referring to Tiger Claw. He sighed heavily.

"What's wrong?" April asked after seeing Leo became moody again.

He sighed again. "It's good and all, but… it doesn't have the same … what do they say … impact. Yeah, it doesn't have the same impact as that one." He answered but it only manages to confuse her even more.

"What do you mean? It doesn't have the same impact as what?" She asked.

"Alcohols." Leo answered bluntly.

"Alcohols?" She repeated.

"Yep, I was trying to find something that could be used as a substitute. My life has been a mess lately and sometimes I can't go on without help. Alcoholic drinks are pretty much the only thing that helps me." He explained.

"I thought you said you were 15 years old?"

"Yup. It's not a lie. But, in my … uh, "line of work", it doesn't matter."

"Line of work?"

Leo unzipped his hoodie and took it off. He then showed the logo in his left upper arm part of his t-shirt. "I work for the Foot Clan and what I learn from them is that there's no such thing such as underage." He told her. If she's friends with his brothers then that means she should at least know about the Foot Clan, or at least have heard of it.

She gasped. "Y-y-you're working for the Foot Clan?" She asked with the recent topic was all forgotten.

"Come on, you said it like it was a bad thing. Not that it was good, but, not all Foot clan members are evil you know. We're just criminals who got shoved into our current situation." He said, faking a pout. "Some of them are actually friendly if you got on their good side." He defended. He put his hoodie back on and zipped it halfway.

April was speechless. The whole time, she was talking with a member of her friends' worst enemy's clan. She was saved by a member of the Foot Clan. None of them exchanged words after that until they were about to part ways. After April and Leo paid for their food, they walked together until they were outside.

"Um, April?" Leo called out. "Thanks. It was really nice to talk with you. I never had any human friend before." He paused for a while before continuing. "We are friends, right?" He asked, hoping from the top of his head that she would say yes.

April smiled warmly at him and replied. The guys will kill her if they find out about this. "Of course we are, Leo."

 **A few minutes later … The Lair …**

"APRIL!" Donnie, unsurprisingly, shouted but in a relieved kind of way. When April showed up in the Lair, Donnie and Casey were the first ones to come to her side. They kept asking her whether she's hurt or something.

April tried to calm them down, but failed miserably. As oblivious as she can be, she knows very well that the two of them has a big crush on her. It was her feelings for them that she didn't know. Falling in love is something new to her. She doesn't know if her feelings for both Donnie and Casey were just a "Best-Friends" feeling or something else. She, sometimes, could get annoyed when the two fights to see who will "win" her. April doesn't like being treated like she was some kind of trophy.

As they still won't calm down, Mikey and Raph dragged the two away from her so the poor girl could get to breathe. Seriously, didn't they know what "personal space" is? "Where have you been, dudette?" Mikey asked with his usual cheery voice.

"Yeah, April. We searched high 'n low for ya." Raph added while still holding Donnie who was trying to break away. "Yer t-phone ain't active. It made these knuckleheads goes haywire."

"I was at Murakami's buying some food for you guys, **like I said 14 times already this morning.** " April almost screamed at them.

"16 actually." Donnie corrected. "You said it exactly 16 times this morning." He continued, earning disturbed glance from everyone else in the room.

"Yer not helpin' yerself, knucklehead #1." Raph commented. "Knucklehead #2's gonna get better chance than ya if ya keep that up." His brother is good at everything but not in the love department. He always fought the urge to face palm every time Donnie did something stupid in front of April, because if he didn't, he would have a broken frontal bone by now. Love really makes people do stupid things and Donnie is the biggest example around. Not because he does things he normally wouldn't around April, but he really became dumber than Mikey when she's around.

"Why did it take almost one hour for you to get here, dudette?" Finally, there is a valid question to be asked. Surprisingly, it came from Mikey.

Of course, April couldn't tell them that she became friends with a member of the Foot Clan, an active member at that. The words Leo said to her about the Hamato Clan are still lingering around her head. The ones about she had to be careful around them. She's still not buying them. They protected her with everything they got and always rescues her whenever she needed it. "It's ok, guys. I was just … got ambushed by the kraang." She said.

Those words turned the nearly calm Donnie and Casey back to "freak out" mode. "WHAT?!" They yelled at the same time. The brainiac and the vigilante started squirming even harder, trying to get out of their captors' grip. Raph and Mikey looked at each other and then nodded at the same time.

*SMACK*

Two limping bodies came crashing down to the floor. "That should shut 'em up." Raph said.

"I hope I didn't hit D too hard." Mikey said as he crouched down to see Donnie.

April put down the plastic bag she was holding on the table. "Well, I got to go now. My aunt might be gets worried if I don't hurry." She said. She noticed the absence of someone inside of this room. "How's sensei?" She asked.

"Master Splinter still ain't tellin' us 'bout what really happened."

"He said that we're not ready for it yet, whatever that means."

Inside of his room, Splinter's enhanced hearing caught the conversation between his students. He's making them worried, but could he tell them that the one who's hunting down their family was closer to them than they thought? The one that was out for their blood was their own brother? He had meditated almost non-stop to find it, the best way to let them know, and yet, he couldn't.


	11. Chapter 11 : Missions and Things Part II

**A/N: Finishing this one took a bit longer than I thought, sorry about that. In case anyone's wondering, I'm still at the hospital so I can't get near my laptop too much, unfortunately. Apparently it wasn't because of overwork, but it was some virus that attacks bone system. But, it's nothing lethal (thank God).**

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He's waiting …

He waited for the right time to go. He waited until all three of his brothers came out from the sewers. As he was waiting, he sat on a lotus position, focusing his senses mostly on his hearing. The night was a normal night on the Big Apple. It was neither too cold, nor it was too warm. The skyline of the city itself was mostly occupied by the lights emitted by the skyscrapers. There was not a single star can be seen as the pollution was thick and the city itself was quite bright.

After only a few minutes of waiting, his ears twitched as the sound of the manhole cover was being moved. He got up from his meditation and walked a few feet to the edge of the apartment roof. He took a hard glance to the now opened manhole. Seeing as something was coming out, he crouched low enough to let the roof guardrail hid his whole body, but high enough to let him see what was coming. He already took precautions of the moon's angle, choosing the rooftop where his shadow would be casted behind him so no one would notice his presence.

From there, the first one who came out was April, much to his surprise. She was followed by another human, a guy wearing a hockey mask and has a few hockey sticks on his back. After that, finally his brothers followed. The first one out is Mikey, who from what it seems he just jumped right out without using the ladder. He yelled out his battle cry as he jumped out. Mikey was never the quiet ninja, which is kind of ironic. The second one is Raph and then followed by Donnie who closed the hole again after he had gotten out. Both of them used the ladder. _'So, it's true that she's friends with my brothers.'_ He mused mentally.

He watched intently as they interacted with each other. Although he was watching where normal people won't be able to hear their talk, he could make out the words quite easily. The first one to talk was April. "Be careful guys." She said quietly. It was quickly followed by Raph's voice.

"Don't worry, April. We ain't goin' down just 'cuz of some Kraang." He said confidently. "Ya won't believe how many Kraang warships we already destroyed." He said. It made Leo remembered his time together with his brothers. Sometimes when they succeeded, it was a close call. But some are easier than others. It depends on their luck and information about the ship itself.

Speaking of luck, his is seems to be smiling. Shredder just gave him a mission to "retrieve" something from the kraang. From Stockman's intel, it was present on every Kraang warship available. He was given the picture of his objective. It looks like a bunch of purple pearls. He had no idea of what it might be, but he really needs some pocket money right at the moment so he accepted it without a second thought. It was just a simple "heist" mission. Now, his brothers just made it even simpler. All he had to do is: wait for his brothers to destroy the said warship, and then he could scavenge what he need.

It somehow felt wrong for him to be using his brothers like that. _'No, Leo, get a grip. They don't even want you anymore. Don't feel bad about them.'_ He thought as he shook his head several times left and right. But he still couldn't deny it. _'I still love my brothers, my sensei … my family.'_ He sighed heavily. Now, he's getting worried about his brothers. What if they fail to do it? What would happen to them if they did? What if they got badly injured? What if something even worse would happen? He shook off all those thoughts. ' _They are my brothers. I believe in their strength.'_ He thought. _'Even if they fail, they could at least escape without serious damage.'_ He tried to reason with himself.

"Um … uh … A-April …" Donnie's stammering voice brought Leo back to reality. He found it strange for Donnie to struggle with his own words. Donnie is especially known for his brutal honesty. If you only have 5 seconds left to live, that's exactly what he's going to tell you. He doesn't take the easy, curving road to tell something so it won't sound as bad as it really is but instead, he takes the blunt, straight way.

April turned around to face Donnie. Even though it was dark and not even the turtles could see it, Leo could see that Donnie is blushing right now. His brother, Donnie, was indeed in love with April O'neil, Leo is really sure about it. April's face formed a smile. "Yes, Donnie?" She asked as if she was clueless about Donatello's affection towards her.

"W-well, you see… I … uh …" He still can't spit it out. Finally, another voice cuts him off.

"Yo, April. You want me to walk you home?" Said the guy with the hockey mask.

"WHAT!?" Donnie bursts out. "No way, Casey. I'm the one who's going to walk her home." Donnie suddenly found his courage from God knows where.

"No, I AM!" Casey yelled at him and held April's right hand.

"NO, I AM!" Donnie yelled back as he grabbed April's left hand. Raph just facepalmed and Mikey was laughing uncontrollably in the background.

Leo who was still watching would've laugh, or at least smile watching this but instead, anger fueled inside of him. He felt a large pang of jealousy building up from inside. Worst of all, he doesn't even know why. Why did he get jealous? April and him only met for no longer than two weeks. Sure, they talked everyday on their phone. They also gone to Murakami's twice together but those happened because they really liked talking with each other and Leo really liked the pizza gyoza, nothing else other than that, right?

"KNOCK IT OFF, KNUCKLEHEADS." Raph's outburst was the loudest one. "We're supposed to be on a mission right now, we ain't got much time. 'Sides, April can take care of herself, right April?" This left Leo with a gaping mouth. Did Raph, the hot head had just ordered the team to focus on something? That was shocking, at the least.

Pulling her hands off from the grip of her two friends, she crossed her arms. "Of course I am. I've been training a lot lately so I can take care of myself." She cleared her throat with a cough. "Anyway, guys. I have to go back right now. My aunt's going to throw a tantrum at me if I didn't get home soon." With that, she turned around and walked away as the other four goes to the opposite direction. Once both parties were far enough from the manhole, Leo jumped down from the rooftop with one noiseless jump.

Leo moved the manhole cover and climbed down the sewers, not forgetting to close it again. He sighed quietly. It hasn't been that long ever since he went down here, but things were already so different for him. The sewers felt brighter, less cold, but the smell was stronger. They were all thanks to his new body. He doesn't have time for this right now. Sprinting through the sewers at the maximum speed and minimum sound, it doesn't take long for him as the familiar structure of the lair is revealed. He entered his old home slowly, but surely, keeping his stealth up at all times. While his brothers are out on a mission, that doesn't mean the Lair was empty.

He was right. Just when he was about to enter his old room, the voice of his old maser rang on his ears. "Leonardo." Just by calling his name, Splinter managed to froze Leo in his tracks. He turned around and let out a heavy sigh. Now, his sensei was standing in front of him, his cane is held in front of his with both his paws.

"I'm just here to take the things that belonged to me, sensei. I'm not here to fight." He explained simply, turning around again and made a straight line to his room.

His room felt smaller for him now. Inside, although not messy, almost everything was covered in a layer of dust. His alarm clock, which had ran out of battery, his sword stand, even his Space Heroes posters. _'Maybe I should watch a couple of episodes when I get back.'_ He thought with a smile. His things seemed to be untouched from that day. Yes, everything but the family photo. It was turned face side down to hide the picture itself. Unlike the rest of his stuff, it was the only thing that wasn't covered in dust.

He picked up the frame. Looking at the photo, a few drops of tear fell down to the frame. In the picture, everyone was happy. They were far from perfect, but they were a one happy family. Where did everything got wrong? He quickly wiped his tears and stuffed the frame on his pocket. He's here for something else, actually. His blue scarf. He had a very faint memory as a baby where a shadowy figure used the scarf to wrap his body, protecting him from the cold. This one, alongside his first forged sword has been his prized possessions but the scarf was much more valuable to him.

Leo cleaned up the dusts covering his scarf by waving it around harshly for a few times. When he's done, he wore it the way he usually does. He made two complete turns using the blue cloth and let what left from it hung down on his back. Every time he wore this, he felt a small part of him returned. While he never found out why, he never really cared about it. He was hoping he could know though. Now, it's time for him to search for that Kraang warship and take whatever it is Shredder wants. He got out from his room and closed the door.

As he walked back to the entrance, he had a small urge to check the room of his youngest brother, Mikey. It was placed right beside his own. Surprisingly, Michelangelo's room was not as messy as it was before. He still left his stuff all over the place but there were no longer any litter scattered around. Something caught his eyes. The family photo. He walked towards the nightstand where the frame was placed. When he finally saw the photo, his eyes widened and his body paled. It was the same photo as his, but his part was torn off. Now, it's only his brothers and sensei inside of the photo.

 _'N-n-no … no way.'_ He panicked at the thought he got after he saw the picture. He was breathing uncontrollably. He sprinted out of Mikey's room and entered Raphael's. It was the same as Mikey's. Raph's family photo was also torn the same way as Mikey's. He would have gotten paler if it was possible. Once again, he was sent into frenzy. He sprint out and gone straight to Donnie's lab. He found the photo frame on his lab table. It was also face side down. His paws trembles with fear. Slowly, he took the frame to see the photo. He almost dropped it as he saw a familiar torn on the photo.

He hardened his fist and his shiver stopped. _'What am I expecting anyway? I'm no longer wanted in this family.'_ His bitter thought formed more tears in his eyes. He had gotten weaker. What would Tiger Claw think of him if he sees him like this? Tiger Claw has a very high expectation. If he kept moping around like this, he couldn't even hope to reach it. Wiping away his tears, he proceeded by leaving Donnie's lab and walked back to the lair's entrance. As he gets closer, he walked slower and slower while unsheathing his katana. When he stopped, he was already on a battle position.

"Outta my way, sensei." He said seriously. Splinter was blocking the entrance to the lair, which is also the only exit.

"Leonardo, I must know why you are doing all this. The reason why you hated your own family so much." He said. While he's also curious about how did Leo turned into a tiger mutant, it was just a minor problem for him. Right now, he needed to know, what was his reason for all his actions?

Leo huffed in amusement. "I won't tell you until you tell me why _my_ family hates me." He said, lowering his guard as if he was taunting his old master to attack. Splinter's eyes widened at Leo's claim. It made Leo forms a smirk. "That's right, I know you hate me. You don't even have to deny it. It was all so obvious. You made me went into all those harsh trainings, forced me to lead my brothers, even blaming me for everything my brothers done. It was all because you hate me." He said, looking down to his bare feet. His heart ached at his own words. He actually just thought about it, but when he thinks it over, it was all true.

"Leonardo, I…" Splinter stopped as he sees drops of tears slowly ran down his face and fell to the floor beneath them.

"Why is it so hard to earn your respect?" He looked up and opened his eyes. Tears coming out from his piercing blue eyes as they ran down his cheeks like a river. "WHY IS IT SO HARD TO EARN YOUR LOVE, SOMETHING THAT EVERY FATHER SHOULD HAVE GIVEN THEIR SON?" He snapped at his sensei, rendering him speechless. "I love you, sensei. I love my brothers. Not in a million years I would come to hate my own family. But, why can't all of you love me back. I never asked for a thank you, I never asked for a gift, ALL I WANT IS TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED BY MY OWN FAMILY. IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK?" He was panting by the time he was finished.

"Leonardo, please listen to me …" As Splinter tried to calm him down, Leo's eyes glows golden. With a blink of an eye, Leo was already behind his old sensei. Splinter's guard is down to almost non-existent at the moment and both of them knew this is a fact. There is no way, not even the best ninja would be able to dodge an attack like that. However, instead of using the golden chance, Leo kept dashing forward towards the exit. He knew he couldn't do it anyway even if the chance was given to him. "Leonardo!" He heard his sensei calling his name. He ran even faster, not caring where he might end up.

Out of all places, he ends up in the same place where he entered the sewers. He opened the cover and climbed out, closing it as soon as he got out. He took one powerful leap to the rooftops. The sound of his cellphone broke the silence of the night. Leo smiled when he see who's calling him. April. He pressed the answer button and brought the phone to his ears. "Hey April." He just realized his voice was a little hoarse. He just hoped April wouldn't figure out what's happening to him.

 _"Leo? Are you crying?"_ came the sound from the other side. Of course, what was he thinking? April is a very thoughtful person, she would easily figure out what's happening.

"Y-yeah …" He sniffed and sighed heavily. "You know how much of a jerk life can be." He said, attempting to joke as they go on. "Oh, and April, I heard you and my- I mean … I heard you and the _turtles_ talked about a Kraang warship."

A few minutes later …

Leonardo leaps over from one rooftop to another. His focus was obscured by remembering his conversation with April. _"How did you know that?"_ Her voice rang inside of his head as he made another jump.

 _"I just happened to pass by."_ It was the answer he came up with.

It's not a surprise that she would ask his reason of asking about it. _"You're not trying to do anything with them, are you?"_

He leapt to a block of apartments. The rooftops were connected so all he had to do is run while avoiding some obstacles. _"I told you, I will only kill them in a fair fight."_ Is what he answered but, it was actually a lie as it was clear to him now that he won't be able to do it. Hurt, maybe he could, but not kill. _"I also told you I hate those brainy aliens. With this, we actually have a common enemy."_ When he tried to reason with her, it was only partially true considering he was mostly there for his mission.

He finally entered the rough part of the city. _"Okay, I trust you, Leo."_ When he remembered those words, he always felt weird in some way but, he dismissed it. Right now, he's on a part of the city that can be summed up with one word. "Stink." This part of the town was one of the many poor districts and this one in particular is one of, if not the worst place of all. This was quite famous in the New York underworld to be the place where you can find all kinds of illegal drugs. He stumbled on this info when he was doing some errands for the Shredder.

He kept going to the same direction he took about 10 minutes ago until he was on top of the last row of buildings. Finally, he could see the Kranng warship, hovering lowly above the water. Then he recalled the last thing she told him before she hung up. _"There is a kraang ship detected on Donnie's computer. It was at the dock. I think its northwest from Murakami's.*small pause*. My aunt's here, I gotta go. Bye Leo."_

Just a few seconds later, the warship stopped hovering and crashed to the water, followed by the turtle brothers and the Casey guy jumping out in a hurry. They were alright. He had always believed his brothers would make it out. That would be his cue to enter. Inside, the place was quite trashed. ' _They really need to work on their stealth skills.'_ He thought. He walked over hundreds of empty kraang bots. From what Shredder had told him, it should be on the "deck" of the warship. Sadly, he didn't provide any maps. Fortunately, however, since all the warships were just one copy after another, he already had the parts of the ship in his head.

Doesn't take long for him to find what he needed, purple pearls thing, contained in a small canister. Since he was at the control center of the ship, he activated the self-destruct sequence. He always "cleans up" after his work and he won't break the tradition now. It was actually cool to see the ship explodes from the outside which is a bonus. Leo walked away as the battered, burnt remains of the ship sank, almost like a scene right out of an action movie. "Mission Accomplished."

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 **Next chapter would be a little unexpected, I can assure that. Also, it's going to affect mostly on Leo's affection and his own mental state. And sorry, but no previews.**

 **BTW...**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please review...**


	12. Chapter 12 : Darkness Part I

**Update! Well, folks, I'm finally out from the hospital. I'm still sick due to the anti-virus for my sickness has yet been discovered (seriously, there's no cure yet) but the doctor said my antibody would slowly destroy them. Antibody FTW!**

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April sat down on the dining chair on her apartment's kitchen. She took out her T-phone, searched on her contacts for the number named _"Ichiban Tora"_ which is Japanese for "Number one tiger". She chuckled while somewhat mocking herself for giving Leo such a lame nickname, even though it was just for her phone contacts. She pressed the call button and waited for Leo to answer. Waiting for no longer than 10 seconds, Leo answered her call. _"Hey, April."_ She was a bit startled when she heard the voice from the other side. It was rather … hoarse, like he just yelled his throat out not long ago. Or maybe …

"Leo? Are you …" She couldn't believe she was about to ask this but it was pretty convincing. "crying?" She finished. She felt rather stupid asking this. She can't even imagine Leo crying. On the other hand, Leo was still a human … or at least a part human so it's even more impossible to imagine that Leo never cried before. There was a slight silence from both sides. She wondered if asking that question was actually a good idea.

Thankfully, April got her answer. _"Y-yeah."_ He answered, then, she heard him sniffed and sighed. _"You know how much of a jerk life can be."_ He continued. _'Things must be really tough for him right now.'_ She thought. It saddens her thinking about what could be the tiger's problem and just how big the problem is that it was enough to make him cry. _"Oh, April."_ His voice called out, snapping her from her thoughts. _"I heard you and my- I mean … I heard you and the turtles talked about a kraang warship."_ He said, emphasizing the word "turtles".

Chill struck down her spine as soon as she heard Leo's accusation. Well, more like he _knows_ rather than accusing. Still, she was pretty sure it was only her and the rest of the gang was around that time. April was also sure that none of the guys could feel anything because if they did, they would've at least warned each other. Heck, even with her own strange powers she still couldn't detect any other presence that time. It would only means Leo was very good at stealth, maybe about as good as Master Splinter.

She shuddered at the thought of someone could get past her psychic power and "spied" on her. Of course she knows Leo wouldn't do anything like that, he's not a stalker like how Casey and Don are in some occasion. "How did you know?" She asked. It would be easier just to ask the person or mutant in question directly, saves her a headache.

 _"I just happened to pass by."_ He answered simply and casually. What are the chances? New York isn't some small town where things like that could easily be a coincidence. However, the last think April could think of what Leo would be is a stalker, there's just no way. I dropped it for now since there are much more important questions to ask.

"You're not trying to do anything with them, are you?" April asked, albeit shakily, worrying about her friends. Leo had made it clear that he's really hunting down the Hamato Clan not only under Shredder's orders, but also his personal vendetta against them. They have talked about it a few times. Whatever the Hamato Clan did to him must have been quite traumatizing for some reason. Every time Leo talked about it, the expression in his eyes says everything but the most noticeable one is that he actually scared of the Hamato Clan. Her heart beats faster as she waited for the answer.

 _"I told you, I will only kill them in a fair fight. I also told you I hate those brainy aliens. With this, we actually have a common enemy."_ Ignoring his first sentence, he actually got a point. Kraang was actually good for one thing, surprisingly.

"Okay, I trust you, Leo. There is a kraang ship detected on Donnie's computer. It was at the dock. I think its …" April was in deep thought, trying to get a direction from a place where Leo might know. "… northwest from Murakami's." She informed him. She heard the door opened and her aunt entered the apartment. She panicked for no reason. "My aunt's here, I gotta go. Bye Leo." Without letting him saying good bye, she ended the call. Her aunt seemed to catch the last part.

"Who is that, April?" She asked curiously.

She flinched when she heard the question. Why is she scared about her aunt finding out about Leo? It's not like she knows that Leo was a mutant or anything. "Just a friend …" She replied with a soft, long sigh following after it. She slumps her shoulders and relaxed against the chair.

The answer isn't enough to satisfy her aunt. "What's his name?" She asked as she put down the groceries on the table, motioning April to help her put them away. With her tone, April could tell that her aunt was teasing her. Even just assuming that she was calling a boy is a part of the tease.

 _'I guess it won't hurt anyone if I told her.'_ She thought. "His name is Leonardo but, people call him Leo." She answered as she took frozen groceries from the plastic bag and into the freezer.

"Leonardo … Strong as a lion." Her aunt mused.

It made April chuckle. _'Well, he's actually a tiger, not a lion but, close enough.'_ Knowing clearly it wasn't a question didn't stop her from answering it. "Yes. Yes, he is." She said absentmindedly.

 **Foot Clan HQ with Leo…**

Leonardo entered the Foot Clan building using the front entrance. It was night so nobody would see him enter other than the workers themselves. With his objective, a purple glowing canister on his paws, he strode confidently inside. The guards on the lobby are the still the same ones as other nights. To not look suspicious, the Foot ninjas whom currently on guarding duty don't wear masks so Leo already had all their faces memorized.

Those ninjas weren't that bad. They've started to warm up to Leo and some had become friends with him. They sometimes go for a drink after their shift ended and would ask Leo to join. Of course, they didn't know his actual age but most of them guessed 18, which is 3 years older than his actual age. Not that they cared about age. Rumors had been going around about him being Tiger Claw's son and most people believed it.

Scanning around the lobby, he found a new face from the guards. The new guy seems to be watching him intently and looks … awestruck? For some reason, he is. Maybe he never seen a mutant before? "Who is that?" He whispered to another guard. Leo, however, could hear his whispering. If this guy doesn't know about him, let alone new to the guards, he's new to the Foot Clan entirely. So, new recruits … This has Shredder's name all over it.

"Yo, Leo!" A guard who Leo recognized as Carl called out to him. Not an unusual name but justified since he's also a New Yorker. Actually, most of the Foot ninjas here are New Yorkers with exceptions of the Elites that were trained at Japan at a young age. Leo turned around to see him standing near the new recruit. "Can ya come here for a bit?" Leo stopped for a few seconds but then just shrugged and went to the two guards.

Carl is a 30 years old man with an average build, stood around 6'1 with dark skin tone and brown eyes. His hair is brown with some tattoos on his arm, a sign of his gangster background. Just like the other guards on shift, he wore black jeans and T-Shirt with a communication device on his left ear. "I want'cha ta meet someone." He said loudly. "This is Scott Peters. This is his first day … or night. He's a special recruit, handpicked by your old man." He said.

Leo smiled from ears to ears, figuratively speaking. "You don't wanna let him hear that or he's gonna to mop the floor with ya." He said while chuckling. Calling Tiger Claw an old man is one of a few red buttons he has. He not old so he felt offended by it, but his own personality makes people mistake him for one. After he stopped laughing, he inspected the new recruit. He stood around 5'7, blond hair, blue eyes with pale skin tone. His build is slightly above average, signs that he's a trained soldier. From his face, he's just around Leo's age or maybe a little older.

"Well, it ain't gonna hurt if he ain't here to hear it." He said calmly. "Oh, and Scott, this guy's Leonardo. He's a mercenary, joined just a few months ago but he's already in the high ranks 'cause he can make a mincemeat out of everyone here. Well, except Shredder and Tiger Claw. Leo here is the friendliest guy around but gettin' close ta him when he's drunk ain't gonna do good."

"Geez, yell it out on the world, would'cha." Leo said. A few seconds later, he realized his accent was slipping out a bit.

"Better safe than sorry, buddy. Last time ya got drunk, a guy almost lost his head." He reasoned.

Leo rolled his eyes as response. "Well, nice to meet you, Scott." He said, offering a paw. He had to look down to him due to their height difference.

He took his paw. "Nice to meet you too, Leonardo." Scott said as the two shook hands.

A Foot Elite approached the party of three. "Leonardo-san, the Shredder is expecting you at the underground lab. Please, come this way." He said. Leo had never entered the lab as it was a restricted area so he doesn't even know how to go there. As Leo nodded, he turned around and walked towards the lift. Leo immediately followed him. They got into the lift.

The elite pressed several buttons in order of 15-6-11-9-3, making the five buttons glowed. After that, the lift started to move up. As it moves, he pressed the five buttons again in order of 11-3-6-15-9 and the five of them stopped glowing. The lift stopped abruptly with a shake and started descending. Soon, the room was filled with beams of red lasers, scanning the passengers. Not long after, the lift door showed the identity of the two.

Name : Leonardo  
Rank : Mercenary  
Age : 15  
Type : Tiger-Human  
Style : Niten-ichi Ryu

Name : Akinari Itagaki  
Rank : Elite  
Age : 31  
Type : Human  
Style : Togakure Ryu

 _'He's also a katana user, huh?"_ He thought. Togakure Ryu is one of the Katana based kata that was used by ninjas. It is, however, only requiring one katana instead of two. Only a while later, the lift stopped and the door opened, revealing a large underground facility. "Whoa." Leo said in awe. There are a lot of scientists going back and forth. This place is filled with all kinds of robots, jets, tanks, practically any vehicular weapon one could think of in development. _'What are they trying to do? Take over the world?'_ He thought with a chuckle. But then … _'This is just like Space Heroes.'_ He thought in glee. His eyes shone like a little kid who just got a new toy.

The elite had started walking but Leo just froze in place, scanning every detail of the massive room. "Please, come this way." He said, snapping Leo out of his fan boy mode. He jogged to closer the distance. They stopped at Stockman's lab, where Shredder, Stockman who just happened to be mutated into a fly recently, and two more "guests", bound to the test bed were waiting. One of the guests was a turtle mutant and another one is a monkey. It was quite surprising to see another turtle mutant. No doubt they were captured since both of them was trying to squirm away.

"Leonardo." The Shredder begins his speech. "I see you have completed your mission, in a very short time too, just mere hours. I am impressed." He said, pleased with Leo's work. Without exchanging as much as a word, Leo handed the purple canister to the Shredder, who in turn handed it over to Stockman.

"Ah, yes. This would work." He claimed, much to Leo's confusion. "Now, all we need is the other half."

"Which is already here." Another voice joined, a voice belonged to none other than Tiger Claw. Leo turned around to the source. Tiger Claw was standing there with a black briefcase. He got taken by surprise by Leo giving him a big hug. "Looks like someone missed me." He said. The blue scarf Leo's wearing caught his attention but he saved the question.

Leo stopped hugging him then stared. "It's been half of a month and you didn't even send me any text? I thought you got killed or something." He joked using an unimpressed tone.

"Heh, sorry cub. I've been busy." He answered.

Shredder, who is already on verge of his patience, finally spoke. "I take it your mission is complete." He asked in a menacing voice.

"Have I ever failed you, Shredder?" He asked as both a reminder and a challenge. One of the many reasons he was promoted into the position of the Second-in-Command was that his missions had and still has a 100% success rate. He handed the briefcase over to Stockman who hastily took it from his paw. Stockman opened it like there was a million dollar inside of it.

Not feeling like he would want to hear anymore of Shredder's talking and since he's not actually interested at whatever plan he had right now, he poked at Tiger Claw's shoulder to gain his attention. "Can I talk to you? Alone." He said seriously.

Tiger Claw thought for a moment. _'Had he figured it out?'_ "Of course, cub. Let's talk at the dojo, I want to see if you really trained or not when I was gone."

Half an hour later …

"GAAHHH." He screamed as he was flung backwards and smashed against the hard, concrete wall and fell to the cold, hard floor. His swords fell with chattering sounds, echoing through the quiet room. There were only the two of them in there as no one else wants to train at 3 in the morning. He stood up immediately, brushing off all his pain without any problem. All Tiger Claw could do is face palming at his son's antics. Surely he got stronger and could now use his body without any problem, but his fighting was still off and it was for one reason:

His uncontrollable adrenaline rush.

His surge of adrenaline that replaces lost stamina served as double edged blade. While it grants him better speed and strength and widens the set of skills he could use which could save his life in tight situations, it's more often than not gets him into even more trouble, or even the sole reason he got into trouble in the first place. His tendency to get fired up in the presence of an opponent stronger than himself had been both good and bad for him. Unlike most people who would think twice before facing a strong opponent, Leo would do that without a single thought if it involves protecting those he cared.

His body adjusts itself to match his opponent's level. If the opponent was too strong, his body gets stronger the longer he fights as the adrenaline starts to take over. "The Berserker." A very rare fighting style mostly due to how hard to get it and the users have a very low chance of surviving a battle. Leo is back at on battle position again. But, Tiger Claw lifted up a paw to stop him. "Hold up! That's enough." He said firmly. "That's enough fighting for now." He said again.

As he finished, Leo's shoulders slumped, his arms fell down limply, followed by his own body and toppled to the floor as he breath heavily. _'It happened again.'_ He's still unaware of his unique type of fighting but at times he forgot just how tired he is if he was fighting. He's not overly tired this time, but he really need to catch his breath. When Tiger Claw made a move to leave the room, Leo finally remembered what he wanted to talk about with him. "Wait!" He struggled as he took a sitting position with his legs crossed. "You said about telling Murakami that I'm your son… It's not just that, isn't it? And that scarf…" Leo pointed at the scarf he placed near his bag. "It was you who gave it to me."

There was a deafening silence between the two, but Leo breaks through it.

"You ARE my real father, my dad …" But then, Leo started to cough furiously.

"Leo, what happened?" He asked as he rushed to his son's side.

"I-I don't-" But he was cut off by his coughing.

His parental intuition suggested him to focus his chi on his eyes. What he sees was something he never thought he would. Dark Chi, and it was overflowing. But how? He was able to block his killing intent so, how did he generated Dark Chi? His eyes widened as he realized something. Dark Chi was made when one have ill intentions.

Sometimes, criminals have a rather pleasant background. Times when people would say: "He used to be a sweet child" when someone unexpectedly makes a turn for the worst. Dark chi was the reason. Even "nice people" have pent up frustration and ill wishes that they kept for themselves and dark chi builds up from it. As a result, when it overflows, they will do anything that they have suppressed all those times.

Leo wanted to kill his family, but he can't if he still loved them. Now, his desires are getting stronger than his reason. It caused dark chi to overflow in his system. Tiger Claw hit a few points on his body. After he hit the last one, dark chi erupted from his body. He sighed in relief that his technique worked, but… "Leonardo, you have to kill."

Leo looked at him in confusion. "W-What are you talking about?"

"You have pent up all of your intention to kill your family. It won't take long until the bottle to shatter from the pressure. You have to kill, be it someone you hate, or even people you don't know, before you ended up killing someone you cared about." He announced the harsh truth. "I'll find an assassination task that would fit you from the Shredder, and you WILL succeed." He then left the dojo without another word. _'This is for his own good.'_

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 **You don't think Leo stopping himself from killing anyone won't have side effect, do you? Things will go dark next chapter, just a warning.**

 **Anyway...**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please Review...**


	13. Chapter 13 : Darkness Part II

**Sorry it took so long. I want to make a list of excuses but I'll just put down the most annoying one: Borderline Writer's Block.**

 **P.S. Thanks for the reviews.**

 _'He's joking, right? He had to be joking.'_ Leonardo forced himself to stand up despite the agony raging through his body and his exhaustion from using cat's "Sixth Sense" for an extended period of time. However, his body was not listening to his commands.

He pushed himself to his limit and yet, he kept falling down before he even stands. His body is shaking, not only from the pain and fatigue, but also from Tiger Claw's, his father's announcement. _'No, there had to be another way out of this.'_

Splinter had taught him about the existence of Dark Chi long ago. He said that while it was evil, it was still needed. Yin and Yang, Good and Evil … one cannot exist without the other. They balance each other to create Order, or else, it would result Chaos.

After falling down one last time, he had enough listening to his own body. He punched the floor in annoyance. Using all his might, Leo was finally able to stand up. He rushed to Tiger Claw whom he figured must be on his way to Shredder's throne room. He was right. Tiger Claw was going there at a slightly faster pace than usual. "WAIT!"

Hearing the cub yell, he stopped and turned around to find Leo was sprinting, albeit limply. When he stopped, he was panting as if he just trained for a full 24 hours. He sighed heavily. "What is it, cub?" He asked, keeping his paws at ease on his back.

Leo knew Tiger Claw would still be patient enough to wait for him to catch his breath first, but he kept going. "Y-you … can't be serious … about this, right?" He managed to get the words out in between his heavy breaths. Not only that, his voice was just like someone who's shivering. He was terrified at the idea of taking someone's life, and it has not changed.

His eyes narrowed. "This is for your own good, Leonardo. If we- _you_ don't do anything to control it, you'll only regret it later." He reasoned. Harsh, but it is the truth.

"Please, don't. There's got to be another way." Leo plead his father.

Tiger Claw froze at Leo's words. Those exact words … _"There's got to be another way."_

 _Flashback … Tiger Claw's Point of View. Tiger Claw is 10 years old._

 _Why? I was fine just seconds ago, but now, I felt horrible. The pain, it was unbearable. I can't get up, I can't stand up. All I could manage right now is to crawl. I felt someone touched my shoulder. I looked up to see him, a tiger mutant just like me. He looked at me with sad expression. "Tora." He begun. "Your condition is getting worse. You had to do this or you might-" He said but I cut him off._

 _"Please, Shiro. There's got to be another way." I don't know if there is any other way out, but, I can't do this. I can't take someone's life just because I have a special condition. "Brother, please…"_

 _His grip strengthened as he helped me get up. As soon as I do, he engulfed me with a warm hug. "Stop being selfish, Tora. You know about it, didn't you? How father turned out to be because he refused to do this as well." He was crying. My older brother was crying on my shoulder. I never seen him cried before._

 _Our adoptive father was controlled by his dark chi after they overflowed too many times. Just like me, he refused to kill anyone, not even outlaws, despite knowing it was his only cure. When dark chi completely took ever, he went into rampage on the same one we were protecting. He killed our friend, along with their families … everyone. No one survived it._

 _To stop him, we had to do something that we never could have thought of. We had to kill him before he cause damage to the nearby villages. I was better at close range fighting, but all I could do is pinning my father down. I can't finish the job. He broke off and was ready to kill me, but Shiro shot an arrow to pierce his heart, killing him instantly._

 _That fight left a permanent scar on my soul but, it left an even bigger scar on my brother's. After that incident, we traveled as far as we could from that village, to turn a new leaf, to leave behind our previous life. I vowed that I would never turn to be just like my father._

 _"Don't worry, Shiro. I would never hurt you, Murakami-san, or any of the villagers." Shiro has been the one I cared the most in my life, Murakami-san has been nothing but nice to us ever since we saved him from robbers and the villagers accepted us for what we are._

 _"Tora, don't you see? Just because you haven't done anything, that doesn't mean you are not hurting anyone." Shiro hugged me even tighter._

 _"What do you mean?"_

 _"Tora, just seeing you hurting like this also hurts everyone. I know you don't like it but for them, you're still a child, a cub. No one should go through this kind of pain, especially children." He paused for a while. "The villagers, they thought it was some kind of sickness and now they are desperately trying to find a cure for you."_

 _My eyes widened after hearing it. "R-really?" By refusing, I indirectly hurting the people around me? He nodded to answer. My paw is clenched into a fist. "I-I'll look for one …"_

 _End of Flashback …_

 **Tiger Claw's Point of View …**

Ever since that day, the two of us became bounty hunters. If I had to kill, then I would only kill criminals. We sent Murakami-san some money to repay him for taking us in and for convincing the villagers that we were not evil when we first moved in.

Years later, we heard the news from him that he was going to move to America. Thankfully he also included his address, saying that we should visit him sometimes if we wanted to have some of his cooking. He really knows how much we liked his cooking. When I was 17 years old, I was re-captured by the kraang, forcefully taken from my brother.

I sighed at the memory. I had seen and lost my father to the dark chi, and I almost lost myself. I will do anything to prevent that from happening from my son. I looked at him with my eyes narrowed to show that I'm serious about this. He seems to take the message and lower his gaze.

"I-isn't there any way around it?" He asked nervously.

I've had enough of this. If he does not grow out of his current shell, he couldn't hope of achieving anything in his life. Then, I punched him, using a solar plexus move. I saw his eyes widened as the hit connected with his stomach. That was enough to throw him about 15 feet. He landed with a loud thud.

I hate to do this, but he left me with no choice. I walked towards him with a slow stride, standing with my shadow covering Leo who's now holding his stomach in pain. "Way around it?" I asked in disappointment. He stopped clenching his arms around his body and forced himself to look at my eyes.

I tried to hide my surprise when I saw it. His bright, blue eyes, they had fear mixed in them. They are the same one as his mother's when I first met her. NO! I can't be too soft on him. "Is that how you solve your problems, by taking excuses and not facing it yourself?"

 **Leonardo's Point of View…**

"Is that how you solve your problems, by taking excuses and not facing it yourself?"

H-he's right. That's how I deal with my problems, aren't I? I couldn't tackle my problems, can't punch them straight in the face to make them go away. I'm a coward. But, what else can I do? Last time I killed someone is because I did it out of anger and not intentional. The feeling of taking a life was unpleasant, to say the least. "B-but-"

"No wonder your family betrayed you. You're weak." He cuts me off. Oh no, I-I can't breathe. Why? Why would he say anything like that? It was like time just froze. I can't think, I can't breathe, I'm not even sure if my heart still beating. Maybe it's true, maybe that's why my family does not want me. I was weak, and the Hamato Clan is no place for a weakling.

But so is the Foot Clan.

I winched at the thought. I can't get kicked out of the Foot Clan, I don't want to. I just found my real father and I won't lose him, not again. I won't lose anyone else that's important to me. "T-Then, I'll proof to you that I'm not weak…" I can't afford to, I have to be strong. "… give me the best target you can find, and I'll …" Come on, Leo, say it. "… and I'll kill 'em." I stared at him, dead serious.

 **The Lair, No Point of View…**

Splinter was still meditating and has not stopped ever since Leonardo's recent visit. Sitting on a lotus position, surrounded by half-depleted candles, he meditated long and hard about the next action he should take. All those things Leonardo had said, every single word had not left his head. Those words hurt him more than daggers.

Had he not been there enough for him? When his sons were little, he's always there for them. But ever since they started going to the surface, he was not sure anymore. If Leonardo said that he did not, then that means he had not given his sons enough attention. It was then when he realized something about his eldest son.

He should have noticed that Leonardo was doing everything he could to make him, his master, proud. He should have given him help when he failed rather than harsh punishment. He never had a chance to say it, that he's proud of his all sons, of Leonardo. He had one chance, and he missed it.

One part of Leonardo's anger might be the fact that they failed to rescue him that night. He thought that he could count on his brothers to save him when he needed help but they failed. However, now he could feel that what happened that night might not matter anymore. He could tell that although not completely, Leonardo had already forgiven his brothers, so now, all his anger is left to one person.

Splinter himself.

His meditation was interrupted as he heard footsteps outside. His sons finally came home. He went out of his room to greet his students and is surprised to see that Slash and Rockwell, looking tired and injured, was being supported by his students. "My sons, what happened?" He asked in concern.

As Donatello explains of the events leading up to this, Michelangelo, Raphael, Casey and Leatherhead were helping the two injured mutants and has them to sit down. Donnie explained that Slash and Rockwell were captured by the Foot Clan but managed to get out by themselves. They did, however, needed help on their getaway as the turtle and the chimpanzee couldn't fight after their escape.

Splinter felt that there is more to the story, something that even his sons does not know. While he never doubted the strength and skills of Slash and Rockwell, their escape felt hollow, and planned. If Shredder managed to capture them, it was quite suspicious that they got out by themselves. He was proven to be correct. Thankfully, he saw it coming.

When Splinter is walking near Slash, suddenly, Slash swung his gigantic arm towards Splinter to attack him. Splinter, purposely, took the blow with a loud groan to warn his students, seemingly to be knocked out. "Master Splinter!" One of his students, namely Raphael, shouted out his name. However, he did not answer. A great ninja always know when is the best time to strike.

The four mutants, and Casey, ganged up on Slash, easily pinning him down due to their numbers, and thus, preventing him from doing any more damage. The victory was cut short as it's revealed that Dr. Rockwell also had his mind controlled. The fighters got easily pushed away by Rockwell's telekinetic power. It's obvious now that the Shredder had done something with Slash and Rockwell.

The team split into two, Mikey, Raph and Casey fought Slash while Donnie and Leatherhead fought Rockwell. Brawl vs. Brawl and Brains vs. Brains. Slash lunged forward and charged at his opponents but they jumped sideways to avoid it.

He growled loudly in rage and threw a powerful punch aimed directly at Casey. He wasn't fast enough as he's still recovering from evading the attack earlier so he's left with one choice. Casey lifted his hockey stick in a blocking manner as he braced himself for the impact. However, a piece of wood was far from enough to block the powerful punch. The stick breaks into splinters as Slash's fist made the impact and Casey was thrown backwards. Thankfully, the hockey stick saved his life as it blocks the punch from directly hitting him.

On the other side of the room, with Leatherhead having better strength than Donnie, he was the one to fight Rockwell head on while Donnie supported him by hitting anything he could find so they would fling towards Rockwell. It was to disrupt his telekinetic skill, allowing some opening for Leatherhead to take. He used anything on the floor, including the remote, some unused parts of his recent project, a toaster, even a box full of comics, to Mikey's horror.

After the stuff had piled up around Rockwell, he did a shockwave explosion, throwing back everything that was thrown to him. Some of it managed to hit Leatherhead, which gotten him to get thrown at Donnie. That got the two mad scientists an idea. "Did you see that, LH?" Donnie asked as he collected himself from the floor while helping Leatherhead get up as well.

Leatherhead nodded as he noticed it as well. "I believe that would be our opening." He said, having the same idea as the purple clad turtle.

Back to the brawlers, Mikey prepared his nunchucks as he ran towards the large turtle. Slash made a low punch intended to stop Mikey on his tracks, but Mikey dodged it by sliding on his knee-pads, getting low enough that his fist narrowly missed Mikey's snout. Now that he's on Slash's blind spot, he jumped and aimed his attack on the un-armored part of his body, the back of his neck. "Booyakasha!" He cried as he hit that point as hard as he could with his nunchucks. His attack was effective enough to get Slash stumbling forward.

That was where Raph had waited for him. Gathering all his strength on his fist, he jumped as he did an uppercut, hitting Slash on his chin. He growled in pain as he started to take a few steps back, losing his balance. Remembering what Leo kept reminding him of about how easy it was to destroy the enemy's footing when they were already unbalanced, he spun around mid-air and kicked Slash on his face. There it is, Slash was about to fall. All they need now is something else to get him fall down.

It was happily provided by Casey who's already behind Slash. He crouched and spun low with his leg, tripping him. Slash fell down with a loud thud.

On Donnie's and Leatherhead's side, their plan was almost in motion as the stuff was starting to pile up again on Rockwell's telekinetic sphere that was protecting him. Noticing the familiar motion the chimpanzee was making, Leatherhead braced himself for the impact as Donnie hide behind him with his bo-staff at ready. When the sphere around Rockwell exploded again, they were ready for it.

At the same time as the shockwave passed through them, Donnie side-stepped to get a clear view of Rockwell. Once he did, he aimed his bo-staff at Rockwell's head and throws it like a spear. With the explosion earlier, the two realized that after the explosion, it would take a few seconds for Rockwell to regain his protective sphere. That's why they waited for this. Donnie's throw was a clean hit. While it wasn't enough to knock him out, it was enough to stop him from forming his shield.

Now that it was his chance, Leatherhead dashed and landed another clean hit with his fist, finally knocking Rockwell out. Leatherhead and Donnie sighed in relief.

Seeing that the two mind-controlled mutants were down, Mikey pumped his fist into the air. "YEAH!" He said in victory.

"Well done, my students." The sound of Master Splinter surprised the whole room. They thought he was knocked out, but in reality, he saw everything. _'It seems that they have grown to be great ninjas.'_ He thought. While usually he would keep it to himself, not, he expresses how proud he is to see that his sons had proven have such great teamwork, along with Leatherhead and Casey.

Now, they have to figure out what is wrong with the unconscious mutants, how the Shredder gained control over their minds.

 **It didn't get dark in this chapter but I hope you guys enjoyed the small peek on Tiger Claw's backstory (it's going to be explored further slowly) the action, the teamfight and the small tweak on the original story 2k12 series. Seriously, in that episode, Splinter is a master ninja and he didn't see THAT coming? I was unsatisfied so I changed it.**

 **By the way, in this story, I'm using the 2k3 version of Leatherhead (ya know? Him being a scientist and all). Why? well, let me list something for you guys.**

 **My favorite TMNT: Leonardo (all version);  
My favorite TMNT villain: Tiger Claw;  
and My favorite TMNT ally: Leatherhead (Only the 2k3 version. 2k12 version is ok but felt bland if compared to the 2k3, at least on my opinion).**

 **Anyway…**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please review …**


	14. Chapter 14 : Calm Before the Storm

**Whoa, how long has it been since I last updated. Anyway, this is the last chapter before anything goes dark.**

 **P.S Thanks for the reviews :D**

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Leo crashed onto his bed as the fatigue started to kick in. It was yet another complete mission of attacking a Kraang warship. He had been going around, stealing tech from the Kraang under Shredder's command, all kinds of tech. This time, he had been partnered with Karai. She's actually very good at ninjutsu and really quick on her feet. She likes messing around while on mission but would still manage to find a way out when needed. She's pretty much a trouble magnet.

That's one thing sorted out. Now, he got another one to think about. For one reason or another, Shredder had taken some more interest on the brainy aliens and had some of his ninjas to focus on them rather than on his primary target, the Hamato Clan. Not that he don't like it. This way, his family would be safer.

But…

He can't shake off the feeling that Shredder might be up to something even worse than he could ever imagine. Courtesy of Karai, Leo found out that Shredder is hell bent on revenge against Splinter and that sometimes, that's all that going around his head. She wouldn't tell him why because it was a "family matter". If Shredder wanted his revenge so badly, then why would he distract himself from it? He had him going around, collecting some tech that was quite random, but, what are those for?

 _'Oh,great. Now my head's too awake for me to sleep.'_ He thought with a heavy sigh. Looking at the alarm clock, it was actually still early, only 7.35 PM. He thought for a little while. He's too tired to do anything but he's sure he won't be getting any sleep. He looked at one corner of his room. Right where he placed a flat-screen TV he "borrowed". He sighed again. _"Ugh, working for Shredder had done some damage to my brain.'_

One thing he wouldn't even think of doing was stealing. Now, he had so many missions, most of those are stealing tech and weaponry from both the kraang and the government. He would also take something for himself while at it. It had become a bad habit of taking trophies per difficult missions. The mission of breaking into the government was hard with the tight guard system that allows little to no opening. To go with that, he took a big trophy with him.

It's not actually for some kind of sick desires to remember that he was successful doing it. Rather, it was to remind him that he had done a crime, an un-honorable crime.

At some missions, he had come so close to killing, _so close_. Sometimes, all he had to do is bring his sword down just for a few inches, but, he couldn't. His dark chi overflow had become more and more frequent because of this. He discovered that if he had decided to kill someone and at the end he didn't, his condition became worse and worse every time.

He decided to sit up and check if there's anything good on TV. He brought it here, would only make sense if he use it. He picked up the remote and turned the TV on. The first channel that popped up is currently airing evening news. Then he remembered that most channels are airing news at this hour. He kept switching without really paying attention.

 _"…with the government jetpack prototype has been stolen…"_

 _*switch*_

 _"…large numbers of weaponry had vanished…"_

 _*switch*_

 _"…the police forces are still investigating the bank robbery…"_

 _*switch*_

 _"…military test weapon dubbed, "The STEEL" had disappeared without a trace…"_

"Ugh." He groans and then face palmed. Four different channels are all showing four different robbery. What are the chances that all four were his doings? _'Well, at least those four are all I had done so far.'_ He thought then switched the channel again.

 _"…we have concluded that all four A-class crimes that happened this month are all connected."_

"Oh, come on!" He yelled in irritation, almost throwing the remote across his room. But something struck his thoughts. _'Maybe if I watch this, I might be able to see how close the law enforcers are to my tail.'_ He's a ninja. He had to maintain his secrecy. He needed to know what his flaws are.

 _"All of those crimes had two same things in common. One, no evidence was left on the crime scene. Two, the criminal, let alone kill, he had never inflicted any serious wound to anyone."_ Said the man who Leo knows worked as the Chief-of-Police.

 _"That was interesting…"_ The female presenter replied with an over-the-top dramatic voice. It was enough to make Leo roll his eyes.

 _"We're still trying to figure it out, but, there is one reason that we have decided to be the suspect's motive. It also brought another clue to the suspect's identity, albeit a small one."_ The cop informed. _"While this is still purely a speculation, the suspect might be not a criminal at just one month ago."_ He continued.

 _"So this "criminal" is not even a criminal to begin with?"_ The presenter asked.

 _"Yes, and that takes us to his motive. From the information we gathered from the victims and witnesses, several times the suspect came so close to do the killing blow, luckily, he spared their lives. The reason might be that he was forced to become a criminal…"_

Leo then watched until the show was closed at 7.57 PM. His motive was the closest thing the police had gotten, even that wasn't close enough. Leo was NOT being forced to complete Shredder's missions. He had done those because of Tiger Claw. His father is very loyal to the Foot Clan and Leo wanted to make him proud. How else is he going to do that other than completing difficult tasks to help the clan?

Other than that, the police's conclusion had all been far off. For example, his appearance. They speculated that he was a 6'1 to 6'3 tall man who's around his late 20s to early 30s. They are still too far off his tail so he wouldn't need to worry about them.

He let his body fall down to his bed. He still couldn't sleep. _'What's a good show around 8 PM?'_ He asked himself. A grin formed on his face as he shot back to sitting position. He then switched the TV to the channel he known all too well, hoping that the show was still airing on the same schedule. His eyes became as bright as the sun itself when the title screen showed up on the TV.

 **"SPACE HEROES"**

But then, a few minutes into the show…

"God, how many episodes had I missed?" He yelled. The whole storyline had no sense to him now. Captain Ryan had acquired a new space ship, a whole new crew and a set of new villains. Just as he was bickering about it on himself, his phone rang.

He reached for the phone and answered without looking at who's calling him. "What is it?!" He said roughly, thinking it was just one of his Foot ninja friends.

 _"Are…you okay, Leo?"_ April's voice came from the other end of the line.

 **With the Hamato Clan…**

It has been a few days ever since Slash and Rockwell was mind controlled. Donatello and Leatherhead had been working almost nonstop ever since they found out that the Shredder had created a mean of mind control. Now, they are trying to find a countermeasure in case someone else was mind controlled. However, they have reached a dead end.

"These equations made no sense!" Leatherhead said as he smashed his fist to the table. They haven't gotten even close to the cure. "Any luck on your side, Donatello?"

Donnie sighed as he looked away from the microscope. "I'm afraid not, LH." He said softly before he sighed again. "It's like we're missing something important." He continued.

"And until we find out what it is, we wouldn't get any further in this subject." Leatherhead completed. But, there is something that had been messing with his head. "Donatello, if Splinter could use one of his techniques to cure Slash and Rockwell, why are we still looking for the antidote?" He asked.

Splinter had used the Healing Hands to the two mind controlled mutants, which resulted them to vomited the worm out of their system. Raphael killed one of the worms right on sight but Donnie stopped him before he killed the second. They had studied everything they could know about the Brain Worms **(A/N: Yes, I changed the name from Mind Worm to Brain Worm)** , everything but their origins.

Find out where it came from and the antidote is only a few steps away.

"That technique is a very hard one to master, LH. There are only two ninjas who I know were capable of performing it flawlessly. Master Splinter himself and…" He stopped abruptly. He doesn't want to continue. He shook his head before he spoke again. "Anyway, we've tried to master it but none of us managed to do it properly. Master Splinter said it was because of our chi, but, I'm not even sure how." Donnie explained.

"Guys!" April burst inside the lab as Donnie and Leatherhead stared, confused. "Don, LH, I got the things you guys needed." She begins, happily.

"But, April, we didn't ask you anything. Did we?" Donnie asked. He looked at Leatherhead who just shrugged.

"Exactly!" April said with a chuckle as she went through her things in her mailman pack while the mutants in front of her just shared a confused glance with each other. She took out two vials that were shut neatly with plastic cover. Each vials held different contents. One has two purple, glowing pearls and the other held some kind of liquid. She handed the vials over to Donnie.

"April? What are these?"

"Those, genius, are the things the Shredder used to create the brain worm." She explained simply, a big smile still plastered on her face.

"No offense, April. But, how can you be so sure?" Donnie asked, a little bit suspicious. No, more like worried. "How did you get them in the first place?" He asked another question.

"I…uh…a-" April hesitated for a second before she finally answered. "…a friend gave it to me." She said softly. "Well, more like I asked him to get those…" She corrected quickly, slightly blushing. 'A friend.' She thought.

That did not get away unnoticed by Donnie. "A friend?" Donnie asked, menacingly, which surprised both April and Leatherhead. "April, who is this "friend"? If these are the Shredder's, how did he manage to get it for you?" He asked again. He had the feelings of both jealousy and worry.

"Uh…"

"April…." Donnie said with a demanding tone.

April sighed in defeat. "Fine." She responded. She had kept them in the dark for too long. "I…um…actually, I got a friend…did you guys remember the time I said I got ambushed by the kraang?" She asked.

Donnie nodded as confirmation. "Yeah, that time you were going to Murakami's but none of us actually thought that you were still at Murakami's when we searched for you." Donnie recapped shortly.

April crossed her arms. "And did you guys think I could fight off kraang by myself that time?" She asked again. Her question made Donnie widen his eyes in realization. "That's when I met him. I was about to get captured when he showed up out of nowhere and saved me."

"But…" Donnie started. "If he saved your life, why did you never tell us about him before?"

"Well…" She chuckled nervously. "That's the problem. He's not exactly a nice guy." She said before realizing something. "Wait, no, he's a nice guy, but…"

"But?"

"He's not one of the…"good guys", if I explain the things about him." She said.

"Go on." Donnie gestured her to continue.

"He's from the Foot Clan." She said bluntly.

Then, silence flooded the room. Even the silence itself was deafening. That is, until another deafening sound rang though the room, courtesy of Donnie. "WHAT!?" Donnie exploded like a time bomb, taking a few moments before it actually destroy anything.

"Donnie, it's ok. He's ok. He's from the Foot Clan but he's actually a kind person, er…mutant. He's a kind mutant."

Donnie couldn't believe what he was hearing right now. She actually befriended a guy from the Foot Clan, the enemy of Hamato Clan. But, Donnie trusts April's judgment no matter how ridiculous it sounds. So… "Do you trust him?" He asked. April nodded. She trusts that Foot guy and that's enough for him.

Unknown to them, Splinter was listening to their conversation. "It is time...my children should know the truth about their brother."

 **With Tiger Claw…**

Sitting up on his bed, he reviewed all the files he had gotten so far. There is one target for Leo that would be a perfect training for him, and as well might solve his dark chi problems. Not only that, if he managed to eliminate this man, no doubt he would gain the Shredder's trust, something that he would need to survive in the Foot Clan.

Hun, leader of the Purple Dragons. They recently just cut off their connection with the Foot Clan. This is, of course, was considered as treachery by the Shredder and they are now on his top list. The faster he is eliminated, the better it is will be for the Foot Clan. The Shredder had predicted that if they are left without some kind of harsh punishment soon, it might spark even more treachery in and out of the Foot ranks, either it's the foot ninjas, or allies of the Foot Clan. He decided it he would inflict a total chaos.

To kill a dragon, cut off their head.

As far as he knows, Purple Dragon was mostly structured by fear more than anything else, almost like how it is the Foot Clan. The difference is that Foot Clan is far older and larger than the Purple Dragon. A death of the Shredder wouldn't stop them from operating as New York is only a branch of the organization. If Shredder dies, Tiger Claw is the one next in line, after that, Karai and then there's many more to choose from.

The Purple Dragon would be in complete chaos if their leader is eliminated. The Shredder figured it out and was planning to get someone to replace that position to get them back into the Foot ranks, this time, permanently.

Something as important as this should be handled by him alone, but, more than anything, he trusted Leo could do this as well. He's strong, although, he needs a push to do anything.

As he was lost in his thoughts, he was dragged back into the reality by a faint glow from his prized saber blade. Leonardo is not the only one with a prized weapon. His eyes narrowed as he watched glow of black light. After a few seconds, the light fades and then vanished completely, which followed right after by a shadowy figure materializing out of thin air.

It wasn't long until the figure finally takes form. The shadows around it begun to fade and reveals a humanoid dragon.

He's a little taller than Tiger Claw, standing around 7'2. He has black scales covering its body, wings sprouting from his back complete with three fingers that looks like a hand, just like bat's wings are. Even with that, he still got a pair of arms just like a normal human and his hand have five fingers with sharp on each. His pupils are blood red, creating an impression of what a demon would be. He has a pair of golden horns pointing backwards to complete his appearance.

He wore grey pants with a hole for his tail and steel armored battle boots that was made especially to match three clawed toes. He doesn't wear any shirt so his muscular body is exposed. He wore black, metallic shoulder guard along with leather strap crossing his body, creating the letter "X" with a strange insignia in the middle of it. On his back, an oversized sword is hung on his back without a sheath.

Right after he takes form completely, he spoke. "We got a problem."

 **Unknown city, America …**

On an alleyway, two men, one of which is 6'3 tall and the other is around 5'9 standing with 7 unconscious thugs on the hard ground.

The taller man is wearing a simple green hoodie and blue jeans with combat boots. With the minimum illumination of the alleyway, his brown eyes looked as if they were glowing. His blond hair is swept to the right. On his left side, he got a sheath for a saber type weapon with the weapon itself is still being held on his right hand.

On his left, is another man or rather, a teenager standing with his arms crossed on his chest. He wore camouflage jacket with black jeans and black and white sneakers. His eyes are also brown colored. His spiky blond hair was unkempt. Unlike the larger man, the teenager has no visible weapon. Not that he needed it. His knuckles are covered in bandages which made his fighting style obvious.

"These guys never learn, do they?" The smaller one asked. Just from his voice, anyone could tell that he's very confident of himself.

The larger man snorted. "Well, I told you already. I really don't know if these guys are brave, persistent, or just plain dumb." He raised his right hand and rested the dull side of the saber on his shoulder.

Without warning, the blade of the saber started to emit light. The larger man held it in from of him to inspect the blade. His eyes are dead serious while the teenager just looked in both awe and confusion.

When the light stopped, he sheathed the saber back with a sigh escaping his lungs.

"Um, dad, what just happened?"

"A big problem."

 **Somewhere in Japan…**

The samurai rabbit mutant had been doing nothing but train ever since he woke up. For some reason, he felt uneasy, like something bad was going to happen. He just doesn't know what it was, but whatever it is it's going to happen soon.

Holding his katana in a guarding stance, he prepared his attack in front of the training dummy. The straws had golden color thanks to the perfect amount of sunlight. He closed his eyes as he imagined on how he would execute his attack.

Suddenly opening his eyes, he moved his katana with a swift motion from the left to the right, creating a diagonal cut aimed at the dummy's head area. It was followed by another perfect horizontal motion from with the opposite direction of the last attack with only a time gap of a split-second. His second attack hits "chest" part of the training dummy. It didn't over there.

As the second attack finished, he used the momentum to spin around once with his katana still at ready. He made another perfect horizontal slash to its stomach area. He stopped moving with him facing the dummy once more. A soft gust of wind arrives, knocking over the dismembered part of the large straw doll.

He was about to sheath his katana but was stopped halfway by a bright light coming from it. At first, his expression is nothing more than a shock. It quickly turned into a serious frown. He fully sheathed his katana. His phone, which is resting near the window, rang indicating it received a text message. He walked over to the window to pick up his phone to see who sent him the message.

Once he picked his phone, he read the name of the sender. "Tora-sensei. So, it was not a hallucination after all." He mused to himself, clenching his phone tighter.

 **Back with Leo…**

After trying to re-watch the episodes of Space Heroes he had missed, he only managed to watch 5 episodes before he fell asleep. As the room was filled with the quiet sound of the TV and Leo's soft snores, his prized katana begun to emit strange, ominous aura.

* * *

 **Next chapter will mark the start of a new Arc. I tried making a name for it and came up with "Reign of Chaos" Arc. Next Arc will be much more violent than this one, I can assure and just like the name, it will get darker as well. New characters will be introduced, including everybody's favorite rabbit samurai. I changed some of his backstory though. Also, the villain I was planning will be EVIL, like, REALLY EVIL.**

 **There will be two villains, one Official Character and the other is an Original Character. Can you guess which Official Character will be the baddie?**

 **The glowing swords? Oh those... They will be used to represent the Four Fundamentals (Light and Dark, Order and Chaos). Two katanas and two sabers.**

 **Also, Leo will be losing some story focus (I was planning to give more focus on the Hamato Clan).**

 **Anyway...**

 **How is it?Good?Bad?**

 **Please Review...**


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